Italian Stuffed Mushrooms

This is the BF’s recipe for stuffed mushrooms. He learned it from his sister, who learned it from Betty Crocker. The stuffing for these mushrooms is so delicious that I triple the recipe and use it as my Thanksgiving stuffing. This is a great make-ahead side dish as well. Prep and stuff the mushrooms the day before, then all you have to do on the day of is pop them in the oven for less than 20 minutes.

**Note: These mushrooms can also be made vegetarian by omitting the sausage. 🙂

Ingredients:

• 2 dozen white mushrooms
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup green onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cup soft bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup Italian sausage, cooked and crumbled
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning (I use a mix of rosemary, thyme, basil, and oregano)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° degrees.

Clean mushrooms. Remove stems and finely chop to measure 1/4 cup.

Melt butter over medium high heat. Cook mushroom stems, onions, bell pepper, and garlic until softened. While cooking, add herbs, salt, and pepper. Once softened, remove from heat and stir in bread crumbs. Fill mushroom caps with mixture.

Place mushrooms on a buttered baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, set oven to broil. Broil mushrooms for 2 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

Fresh handmade sausage from Nugget.

Shrooms. But not the psychedelic kind.

I use buttermilk bread for my soft bread crumbs.

Sometimes I eat this out of the pan. Today was one of those sometimes.

Filling mushroom caps is actually kind of fun.

Two down…two dozen to go…

I like white plates. I have a lot of them.

Does it bother anyone else that the mushrooms are not all the same size? Please say yes.

I only put three in the oven for photographic purposes.

The rest are sittin’ pretty in the fridge.

Close up.

Lunch time!