Vegetarian Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms That Tasted Just Like Pizza...NO KIDDING!!!

This Vegetarian Cheese & Spinach Stuffed Portobello Mushroom tastes just like a big old delicious slice of pizza...NO KIDDING!!!

Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Portobellos from the Eating Well magazine.

I was shocked!
I thought I was just making a nice vegetarian option for supper.

Oh my gosh, that ricotta??!! To die for!!!

And then I took a bite.
I hollered upstairs to my daughter Sweetness, "Get down here! You will never believe it, these mushrooms

TASTE LIKE PIZZA!"

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Immediately
Sweetness came barreling down the stairs. Mouth drooling.
Practically holding a knife and fork in both hands.

But I shouted,

"STOP

STOP!"

DO NOT touch those mushrooms!!! I have to take crappy, blurry pictures first for my blog!"

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And for the next fifteen minutes, my grad student daughter Sweetness breathed down my neck...
Saying things like,
"I'm starving!"
and
"Are you done yet?"
and
"When are you going to be done?"
and
"Do you really need to take that many pictures?"
and
"I'm hungry, the food's getting cold."
Whine, whine, whine.

Which then moved to eye rolling, harumphing and then a fork getting awful dang close to the MUSHROOM I WAS THISCLOSE PHOTOGRAPHING!

Because Sweetness is a literary person
(and for Pete's sake, I highly doubt she was absolutely, completely, 100% starving like she and her sister always make out to be), 
I asked her to answer the following questions:
Angie's Note: I gave her these questions after the Hungry Bear that is Sweetness had eaten.

Question #1
Angie aka Mom: Sweetness, were you really starving?
Sweetness: Yes Mother, I was, I get the sense that you were trying to starve me-combine that with the fact that I couldn't leave the house today as a result of the snow-it was a real Mommy Dearest situation.

Question #2
Really? When was the last time you had eaten?
Sweetness: The last time you allowed me to eat some of the cat food (it felt like it, anyways!!)

Question #3
Why are you and your sister so impatient with food?
Sweetness: Bad genes I guess. One time we were watching you as you cut the pot roast on a calm Christmas Eve and she without thought or care literally smacked my hand down and pushed me away as I was trying to grab a piece of meat, and then took it herself. This was about a month ago.

Question #4
What is the hardest thing about being home on Christmas break?
Sweetness: Cat.

Question #5
What is the easiest?
Sweetness: Purple flower.

Question #6
Will you vacuum the carpets tonight?
Sweetness: Sure, let me pull out my stockings and get on a train that will take me back to the 18th century.

Question #7
Angie aka Mom (clearly exasperated): How old are you?
Sweetness: Slowly encroaching upon my mid-twenties, and then death.

Question #8
Would it have killed you to have waited five minutes for the mushrooms while I took the pictures?
Sweetness: Food was getting cold and so was I.

Question #9
Angie aka Mom: Do you know how to do dishes?
Sweetness: Refer to my response in #6.

Question #10
Do you EVER want me to cook for you again?!?!
Oh, by the way, how were the stuffed mushroom caps?
Sweetness: YES!!!!!! 
THEY WERE DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!

Question #11
Angie aka Mom: Let me ask one more time....will you vacuum the carpets tonight?
*crickets*
*crickets*
*crickets*
*crickets*
Sweetness, you didn't answer the last question. Sweetness! Sweetness!! Sweetness!!! SWEEEEEEETNNNNNEEEEEESS!!!!!

The fixins for this tasty Cheese & Spinach Stuffed Portobellos

Okay,
in all seriousness, this stuffed mushroom recipe is easy and tasty and a super nice alternative to meat night.

The portobellos really are like eating meat.
By the way, get the big portobellos, try not to get the Grillers.
The Grillers seem smaller and you want as much mushroom as you can get to hold this thick hunk-O-hunk-O creamy filling.

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Cheese-&-Spinach-Stuffed Portobellos
From Eating Well Magazine:  March/April 2009
www.eatingwell.com  (This is an excellent magazine with recipes anyone can make)
Courtesy of www.turnkeyqualitycars.com
Eating Well says, “Here we take the elements of a vegetarian lasagna filling—ricotta, spinach and Parmesan cheese—and nestle them into roasted portobello mushroom caps. The recipe works best with very large portobello caps; if you can only find smaller ones, buy one or two extra and divide the filling among all the caps. Serve with a tossed salad and a whole-wheat dinner roll or spaghetti tossed with marinara sauce.
Angie’s note: I also added three cloves of chopped garlic for an extra layer of flavor.
Ingredients
· 4 large portobello mushroom caps
· 1/4 teaspoon salt
· 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, divided
· 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
· 1 cup finely chopped fresh spinach
· 1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
· 2 tablespoons finely chopped kalamata olives…(Angie used black olives instead)
· 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
· 3/4 cup prepared marinara sauce

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Place mushroom caps, gill-side up, on the prepared pan. Sprinkle with salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Roast until tender, 20 to 25 minutes
3. Meanwhile, mash ricotta, spinach, 1/4 cup Parmesan, olives, Italian seasoning and the remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a medium bowl. Place marinara sauce in a small bowl, cover and microwave on High until hot, 30 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes.
4. When the mushrooms are tender, carefully pour out any liquid accumulated in the caps. Return the caps to the pan gill-side up. Spread 1 tablespoon marinara into each cap; cover the remaining sauce to keep warm.
5. Mound a generous 1/3 cup ricotta filling into each cap and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan.
6. Bake until hot, about 10 minutes. Serve with the remaining marinara sauce.

So we start by scraping those gill things out of the inside of the mushroom caps.
By the way, apparently you should not run your portobellos under water to clean them because they absorb the water. Apparently you are to take like a towel and wipe them down. I've done both and definitely using a paper towel worked better than having soggy portobellos.

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Preheat oven to 450. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.
Place the mushrooms on the sheet, gill side up.
(Does the word "gill" make you gross out too when talking about mushrooms?)
Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast until tender 20-25 minutes. 
RED ALERT, RED ALERT, DO NOT roast too long.
They will become flimsy and soggy. These mushrooms really only took 17 minutes and look how done they look even..

Meanwhile, chop your spinach and olives.
I used black olives because I am not a fan of kalamata olives.
Mash the ricotta, spinach, Parmesan, olives, Italian seasoning, and pepper.
By the way, I did add in three cloves of chopped garlic.

The brown spots on the cookie sheet are tiny liquid drops from roasting the mushrooms.

Warm up your marinara...I made mine instead of using jarred but jarred works great too.
When mushrooms are tender, pour out any liquid that might be on them.
Spread 1 tablespoon marinara (I spooned in about 2-3 tablespoons myself)  into each cap...Actually Sweetness didn't want marinara on her two, so I left the marinara off two of them and it made a huge flavor difference.

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Mound a generous 1/3 cup ricotta filling into each cap.

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Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan.

Bake until hot; about 10 minutes.

Platter these babies up and bring to the table.

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Man, these are delicious!
It's like biting into a gorgeous piece of veggie pizza!
So not kidding you!

Try this out!
Oh, they are great the next day too believe it or not!

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Have a great Thursday!!! Chat at ya soon!

By the way, I've been making chicken and turkey meatballs and steak, I'm sorry to say.


NO I'M NOT!
I'M NOT SORRY!
:):):)
See you next time :):):)