Like many herb lovers out there, I’ve started drying my herbs so I can enjoy summer flavors during cold months to come. I’m crazy about one her in particular: basil. I can only pick so many basil leaves to dry before I give up and take a few to the cutting board to cook with. The smell of freshly picked basil always reminds me of cooking in Italy.
One of my favorite recipes I learned while living in Florence, Italy is for Stuffed Mushroom Caps. My roommate and I would always buy too many mushrooms at the fresh market so we decided to come up with this recipe. It used all of our favorite ingredients: basil, garlic and of course mushrooms! Some nights we would substitute mushroom caps for cherry tomatoes and adapt the recipe to include Italian sausage.
Stuffed Mushroom Caps
Makes 26 to 28 servings
• 26-28 white mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons basil, chopped
• 1½ tablespoons Italian parsley, chopped
• 1½ to 2 garlic cloves
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (other substitutes include Romano or Asiago cheese)
• ½ cup dried breadcrumbs (preferably Italian-style)
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (an additional tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil will be used to drizzle the baking sheet with)
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. While the oven preheats, stem all of the mushrooms.
2. Chop the basil cloves and Italian parsley and peal and mince the garlic cloves. Put these herbs in a mixing bowl.
3. Grate the Parmesan cheese and add it to the mixing bowl.
4. Mix in the dried breadcrumbs and the extra-virgin olive oil by stirring the ingredients together with your hands.
5. Stuff the caps with the breadcrumb mixture until there is a slight dome above the mushroom. Place the stuffed mushroom caps on the baking sheet and pop them into the oven for roughly 25 to 30 minutes, or until the breadcrumb mixture is golden brown.
Do you cook with mushrooms? Share a few of your favorite recipes with us and your recipe could appear online! E-mail snelson@ogdenpubs.com.
Additional mushroom featured recipes:
Stuffed Shiitake
Baked Polenta with Italian Sausage, Mushrooms and Three Cheeses
Mushroom Caviar Stuffing
Additional Italian recipes:
Cooking with KC: Italian Pasta
Italian-Style Pesto
Italian Pesto Cheese Torta