Stuffed Portobellos

I found another fabulous recipe in my June 2011 Food Network Magazine. Cheese-Stuffed Portobellos – The recipe was located in the weeknight cooking section. Weeknights are definitely more challenging for me. It’s nice to find a quick recipe that tastes great. I’ve cooked with portobellos before, I’ve even had several stuffed versions, but I really liked the blend of flavors in this particular recipe.

The Ingredients:
Cooking Spray
4 6-inch Portobello Mushroom Caps
4 Cups Spinach – Chopped
1 Cup Panko Breadcrumbs
1 Cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1 Shallot – 1 finely chopped
1 Large Tomato – I sed two medium
3 Tablespoons Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese – Plus shaved pecorino for topping – I used Parmigiano-Reggiano because I didn’t have any romano cheese
3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Plus more for drizzling
Kosher Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper
1/2 Cup Ricotta Cheese

Directions:
Remove the stems from your portobello caps – I used my kitchen shears. If you just snap the stems, I find that it rips away at the gills.

Preheat the broiler on your oven. Mist a foil-lined pan with cooking spray. Put the mushrooms gill-side down on the pan

Broil for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, prep your veggies…

I chopped my spinach into short ribbons and then I took the seeds out of my tomatoes and chopped them too.

Toss the spinach, breadcrumbs, mozzarella, chopped shallot, tomato and 2 tablespoons each parmigiano-regiano and olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and pepper to taste in a large bowl.

Make sure to keep a close watch on your portobellos while they broil. I pulled mine out of the oven and set them to cool for a little bit while I continued prepping my filling.

I removed the mushrooms from the broiler and turned them gill-side up. I used paper towels to soak up the liquid on the foil before moving on to the next step.

Season with salt and pepper.

Mound the spinach filling on the mushrooms…

Top with ricotta and then sprinkle with the remaining parm and broil until the filling is heated through and the ricotta has lightly browned – about 5-6 minutes.

The recipe also included a celery side dish that consisted of 4 stalks celery, 1 sliced shallot, shaved parm, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.

I’m showing this because it was in the magazine, but I ended up adding balsamic vinegar because it was pretty bitter tasting. Not sure if I just got a hold of bitter celery… but I probably won’t be making the side dish again.

I decided that I wanted to use my wedding china in the photos for my fancy stuffed bellos. My late husband Ace and I picked out this pattern and it mostly sits in my glass front cabinets. Why is that? As of now, I’m going to make an honest effort to use my wedding china, my grandmother’s wedding china and other fancy dishes on a more regular basis.

I loved the extra added crunch of the panko breadcrumbs. The melted clouds of ricotta really blended well with the spinach and tomato flavors.

I’m so happy to have another easy veggie recipe to add into my rotation. One little note – I cut the recipe in 1/2, filled my two caps and had plenty left over for a third cap. I think it just depends on how big and how deep your portobello caps are.

Two uses for portobellos in two posts – just showin’ the big mushrooms some love.

I should probably create a category called – Not Dan’s Choice, ha! – Dan wouldn’t go anywhere near the mushrooms. He opted for cereal and I’m cool with that – more lunch time leftovers for me. 😉