Baked Cheese Stuffed Mushroom Hors D’ Oeuvres

I once heard a person say “Mushrooms taste like dirt”; and as much as I wanted to defend this spore bearing fungi related thing, and highlight that mushrooms have earned their place in the culinary world by being heralded as the “meat” of vegetables,  I chose to keep my words to myself. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on mushrooms and I shall respect that. I for one, though, go beyond just having an opinion when looking at mushrooms, I literally have feelings for them… I LOVE MUSHROOMS!

With this easy mushroom hors d’ oeuvres recipe, I might just be able to make someone change their mind about mushrooms.

Pimiento and Cheese Stuffed Baked  Mushrooms

What you will need

1 lb baby Bella, or baby Crimini mushrooms,    

4 oz cream cheese softened

½ cup ricotta cheese

¼ cup drained jarred or canned red pimientos, chopped

½ cup grated cheeses (any combination of the hard cheeses such as cheddar, colby, jack, romano, parmesan, etc.)

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Other Things You Will Need

Baking tray

A Mixing Bowl

What To Do:

Clean your mushrooms. It is important to note that mushrooms are porous so this means that if you clean or soak them in water, they will absorb some of that water. I chose to just wipe them clean with a damp paper towel. I then take the stems off, and this would leave me with just the mushroom caps.

Place the mushrooms in a bowl and toss them with some olive oil and a little salt and pepper. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Prepare the cheese filling by mixing the softened cream cheese, pimientos, grated cheese and ricotta cheese in a bowl.

Take about a half a spoon-full of the mixture and put them onto the underside of the mushroom caps. 

 

Prepare your baking tray by spraying it with some non stick baking spray. Lay the mushrooms in a row with the filled side up.  You don’t necessarily need to  leave a space in between them as the mushrooms will shrink a bit while baking.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.

What to do with the leftover mushroom stems? Use it to make homemade marinara sauce.

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Following the same principle in the recipe above you can try other combination of fillings for the mushrooms.

I have tried it with about 1 tablespoon of chopped dill, and forgone the pimientos and grated cheeses.

I have also tried it with chopped bacon and some mozzarella cheese.

Giada de Laurentis has her own version with Italian BreadCrumbs and Pecorino Romano Cheese