Stuffed Portobellos

Every now and then I get these large, lovely portobello mushrooms in my produce delivery, as I did recently.  We had some sliced and sauteed with garlic, peppers and chicken with a little cream, served over pasta.  One of our favorite combinations!  But with more portobellos to eat, I thought stuffing them would be delicious.

What did I have on hand?  A few cherry tomatoes, a yellow pepper, some fresh basil.  I would have loved to top the portobellos with mozzarella, but I didn't have any.  However, I did have both cream cheese and parmesan.  I also had some breadcrumbs in the freezer.

So I preheated the oven to 375 and began by dicing the pepper and cherry tomatoes (about 10).  I added the basil, a pinch of salt, a few grinds of black pepper, and one minced garlic clove. 

Then I added in a scant 1/4 cup of cream cheese and 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs, and I mixed and mashed that all together with a fork until it was well blended.  Then I tasted it--yum! 

I cleaned the portobellos and removed the stems.  I rubbed olive oil on the bottom of a pyrex dish to prevent sticking, and then laid the portobellos inside.  I filled each cap generously with the filling, using it all up, and topped them off with parmesan cheese.  I drizzled just a little olive oil over the mushrooms, especially around the edges, to keep them moist. 

They baked for 13 minutes, which was when the filling began to brown on the edges and the mushroom caps were slightly shriveled.  They were delicious!  If you like portobellos, give stuffing them a try.  This is a fun recipe, because it's one of those that can be tweaked a zillion ways.  As long as you have a fresh herb, tomatoes and/or peppers, garlic and some sort of cheese to add some melted creaminess, you will likely have a delicious success! 

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Stuffed Portobello Caps

4 portobello mushrooms, cleaned, stems removed (use the stems when you're making beef stock--gives your beef stock a rich, smoky flavor!)
~10 cherry tomatoes, diced
1/2 of a sweet pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
fresh basil, chopped or chiffonaded
1/4 cup cream cheese (or any soft, spreadable cheese like chevre)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
parmesan cheese (or any cheese of choice)
olive oil
salt + pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly oil a small glass baking dish and place the portobello caps inside.  Mix the next 6 ingredients together in a small mixing bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Stuff the portobello caps with the filling.  Top with parmesan cheese.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Bake for about 13 minutes until the caps are slightly shriveled.  Serve hot.