12/26/12 Recipe #1: Stuffed Portobella Mushrooms

Hi Everyone,

I have been wanting to start this blog for a while so I'm finally doing it! To give you a little background I recently got married and we received an amazing gift from my Aunt Susan. She gave us a cookbook that she had put together with recipes from many of our family and friends, 55 recipes in all. WOW, what an amazing gift! To honor this wonderful gift I have decided to blog my way through cooking all the recipes in the book from cover to cover.

As many of you know I am also currently attending graduate school for physical therapy and will graduate with my doctorate in May. I have a passion for healthy living through exercise and for this reason I have decided to included exercises periodically throughout my blog. These will be exercises simple enough for anyone to follow and beneficial to all (in my opinion ;))

Feel free to post back comments, exercises of your own, stories, ANYTHING! I would love to hear from you all often :)

12/26/12 Recipe #1: Stuffed Portobella Mushrooms

This recipe is from my Aunt Rhonda (one of the red headed aunts).

Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 large garlic clove pressed (I used two, I love garlic!)
• 6 large portobello mushrooms stemmed and gills scraped out
• 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese (I substituted low-fat cottage cheese and it turned out great!)
• 1/2 cup + 6 tbsp finely grated parmesan cheese
• 3 tbsp fresh basil chopped
• 6 1/3 inch thick tomato slices from heirloom tomatoes
• 7-8 oz fontina cheese thinly sliced (I used about 3 oz and that was plenty)

Preparation:

1. Prepare barbecue on medium-high heat (can also use a broiler).
2. Whisk EVOO, balsamic vinegar and pressed garlic clove in small bowl. Season dressing with salt and pepper.
3. Arrange portobello mushrooms on rimmed baking sheet, gill side up. Sprinkle with salt and pepper (I use fresh ground pepper and fresh ground sea salt but any will work). Spoon generous tbsp dressing into each mushroom; swirl to coat.  

4. Stir ricotta cheese/cottage cheese, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, and 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil in small bowl to blend. Season with salt and pepper. Arrange tomato slices on plate, season with salt and pepper. Slice fontina cheese.

 

5. Place mushrooms on grill, gill side down. Grill until edges begin to soften, 3-5 minutes.
6. Transfer mushrooms back to baking sheet, gill side up. Nestle 1 tomato slice into each mushroom. Divide ricotta cheese mixture atop sliced tomatoes, spreading to cover. Top with fontina cheese slices. dividing equally. Sprinkle 1 tbsp  parmesan cheese over each. Carefully return mushrooms to grill. Cover bbq and cook until mushrooms are soft and cheese is melted, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle remaining chopped fresh basil over. Place mushrooms on plates, drizzle remaining dressing around mushrooms and serve.

This recipe turned out great! Chad said "this is the best thing you've ever cooked for me!" My parents are currently in town and we served this as the main dish of our dinner with a salad and french bread. We each ate 1-1.5 mushrooms a piece and that was plenty! This could also be served as an appetizer, if you cut it into pieces.

Enjoy!