Picture It: Savory

If you love mushrooms, or even just like them, stuffed mushrooms caps can be a treat.

Most recipes call for chopped mushroom stems, breadcrumbs, Italian parsley, and a hard Italian cheese. Some incorporate crab bits, bacon crumbles, sausage, creamed cheese, and oilier ingredients that can be tasty, or can really backfire. Until recently, I’d say I was among those who hate stuffed mushrooms in all forms. A bad experience at a dinner party — where the eagle-eyed hostess kept refilling my empty plate with her noxiously limp, watery concoctions — sort of scarred me for life.

These changed my mind.

First, our stuffed mushrooms were made out of plain old button ‘shrooms — not fancy Portabellos. They were a whipped-together appetizer D. came up with while we were pondering what else to make for dinner. Since it’s allegedly Spring (allegedly, since there is still a hailshower at least once a day, and there’s so much rain that the poor osprey chicks are drowning in their nests), we realize that we need a serious diet change — we’ve been trying to incorporate more fruits and veg in order to offset the bland and sluggish too-much-starch feelings we’ve been suffering. These mushrooms were a small step in the right direction.

There isn’t really a recipe for these — we used chopped garlic and onions, homemade rye bread crumbs, a drizzle of olive oil, and mushroom stems to stuff into cleaned, dry (patted with a towel) mushroom caps. They were baked in a (approximately) 400° oven a mere ten minutes – just enough time for the crumbs to get crunchier, but not enough time for the mushrooms to get too soft.

One last note: don’t forget your salt.

As you can tell, we didn’t remember to add ours to the stuffing, so had to sprinkle sea salt on top — but never mind. These were very basic, quick, and easy. They look and taste great with little caps of sour cream or plain yogurt, or you can eat them unadorned. Either way, it’s worth remembering that mushrooms are awesome in dishes other than soup or pizza!

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