As a kid, you would never find me eating mushrooms. However, as I grew up, my tastebuds changed and I now love mushrooms.

As I was making out my grocery list a few days ago, I knew I wanted to buy sweet Italian chicken sausages. I love the ones they have at the meat counter at Sprouts. They come in several different flavors, but I bought the plain ones for this recipe. When I decided I’d make something with the Italian chicken sausages, I wanted to do something a little different. I decided I’d buy large portobello mushrooms and stuff them with a mixture of the chicken sausages, the mushroom stems, onion, garlic, and grated parmesan cheese.

After removing the stems from the mushrooms, I scraped the black gills off the mushrooms with a spoon.

I set the mushroom stems aside to add to my mini food processor so I could chop them together with the onions and garlic.

Meanwhile, the Italian chicken sausage was browning in a skillet on the stove. To the sausage, I added 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes. Once I had cooked the sausage enough that it was no longer pink (about 5-7 minutes), I added the vegetable mixture to the skillet and continued to cook for 5 minutes. I then turned the heat off on the stove and added 1/4 cup of chopped parsley. I mixed the parsley into the sausage before adding 1/2 cup of grated parmesan. I then stirred everything together once more.

The mushrooms had been placed on a large baking sheet. I spooned the sausage vegetable mixture into the mushroom caps and then added bread crumbs and a sprinkling of olive oil before baking.

I baked the mushrooms in a preheated 350 degree oven for 18 minutes. Once they were done, I sprinkled freshly grated parmesan to the top. This dinner is perfect served with a simple arugula salad, dressed in olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, kosher salt and pepper, or you can serve it alongside angel hair pasta – or both, which is what I did. Dennis wanted pasta, and I wanted the arugula salad. For the angel hair, I tossed it in olive oil and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice … it was very simple.

I would actually serve this dinner to my dinner club! I think they’d love it. I may make these wonderful stuffed mushrooms for an upcoming birthday dinner I’m hosting in the beginning of May and/or neighborhood book club when it’s my turn to host in a couple months.

Ingredients

• 4 large portobello mushrooms, save stems to chop
• 1-1/2 pound sweet Italian sausages
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a drizzle
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus 1/2 teaspoon
• 1 teaspoon pepper, plus 1/2 teaspoon
• pinch red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• freshly shredded parmesan for garnish
• 1/4 cup chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
• 1/8 cup bread crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Remove stems and black gills from underside of mushroom. Toss gills and chop stems. Place mushrooms on parchment paper on a large sheet pan. Tops down.
3. Roughly chop onion and garlic. Place into the bowl of a mini food processor, along with mushroom stems and chop until well minced. Set aside.
4. Remove sausages from casings and brown in olive oil in a large skillet, adding kosher salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Cook until sausage is no longer pink in the middle, 5-7 minutes. Add vegetable mixture to skillet, along with 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Continue to cook for 3-5 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and add chopped parsley and grated parmesan. Mix together.
6. Spoon mixture into mushrooms and sprinkle bread crumbs on top. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 18 minutes.

Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris