Shelly's Recipe

Stuffed Mini Portobello Mushrooms with an Herbed, Sweet Italian Sausage, Dried Apple and Vermont Cheddar Stuffing

Category: Stuffed Mushrooms

(Makes 12 stuffed mushrooms, serves about 4)


Olive oil
3 sweet Italian sausage links, casings removed
1/2 small onion, finely diced
6 ounces (a little less that half a loaf) French bread, finely cubed
1/4 cup dried apples, chopped
6 fluid ounces chicken stock, warm
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped, divided use
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 cup grated Vermont cheddar (or any extra sharp, white cheddar), divided use
• Salt
• Freshly cracked black pepper
12 mini portobello mushrooms, stems removed and gills scraped out



-Preheat the oven to 400, and line a baking sheet with foil.

-Place a medium-size saute pan over medium-high heat, and drizzle in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil; add the sweet Italian sausage into the hot pan, and break it up into as fine a crumble as possible while it browns for a few moments; once browned, remove the sausage from pan, and set aside; leave the heat on the pan.

-Next, add the diced onion into the same hot pan, and saute it in the drippings for a couple of minutes until golden-brown; set aside for a moment.

-To make the stuffing, add the finely cubed French bread into a medium-size bowl; next, add in the browned and crumbled sausage, the sauteed onion, the dried apples, the chicken stock, the melted butter, the parsley, 1 teaspoon of the fresh thyme leaves, the honey and the Italian seasoning; using your hands, mix the stuffing together very well to incorporate the ingredients; next, add in ¼ cup of the grated Vermont cheddar along with a pinch of salt and black pepper, and once again incorporate those into the stuffing, well.

-To stuff the mushrooms, first drizzle a little olive oil over each of them, along with a pinch of salt and black pepper; next, stuff each cap with about 2-3 tablespoons worth of the stuffing, or enough so that it overflows a little above the top of the mushroom cap, and drizzle just a touch more olive oil over, and bake for about 25 minutes until mushrooms are tender and the stuffing warm; to finish the mushrooms, sprinkle over each one a little of the remaining ¼ cup of Vermont cheddar, and place back into the oven for a few minutes more to melt the cheese.

-To serve, plate the mushrooms and top each of them with a sprinkle of the remaining 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves.