Italian Sausage Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

 

This week's inspiration came from admiring a similar item in the meat section of a local grocery store.  In-store made Italian sausage stuffed Portobello mushrooms caught our eye while shopping one night.  I decided not to buy them but to try and make them as part of my blog instead.  I did an internet search for a few recipes and decided that I was okay to combine a few recipes on my own.   I never measured anything, so I apologize.  This is what I did.

 

First, I scramble fried some high quality hot Italian sausage.  I decided to buy the links and cut off the casing as the sausages looked better than the sausage meat.  (so..cut off casing, and fry the inside meat breaking it down as it cooks.).  Once the meat was cooked, I then sautéed some diced onions and peppers in the fat drippings from the sausage and added fresh spinach, allowing it to wilt.  I added more spinach periodically until the green colour looked balanced with the orange pepper.   Once the veggies were all softened, I added a small/medium can of tomato sauce and added in seasonings like dried basil, dried oregano, and black pepper.  I did not add salt nor did I add chili peppers to allow the flavour of the sausage shine through.  I then divided this mixture onto four Portobello mushrooms that had been prepped (cleaned, stems removed and placed on a foil lined cookie sheet).  I added some grated jalepeno cheddar on top of each.  Then, these yummy concoctions baked in a 350 F oven until they were done....maybe 20 minutes?  Done is supposed to look like the mushrooms softened and the cheese melted and golden brown ( I overcooked mine slightly....oops).

 

These were an ABSOLUTE hit!!   We usually make Portobello mushroom pizzas on a regular basis (basically make a pizza using the mushroom as your crust and bake them in the oven).  The Italian sausage mixture kicked it up MANY notches.   This will replace our Portobello pizzas for sure!  Next time, I would just add fresh basil and fresh oregano to the mixture (the store was out of these, and my garden is not quite there, yet...).  I have no more words to describe the experience you will have when you eat these.  If you like the ingredients I used and if you like a balance of textures, flavours, and colours in your food, you will love these! 

 



 

 

Italian Sausage Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

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