Stuffed Mushrooms
Source: Lidia
Modified By: Michael D'Attilo
Ingredients
23 mushrooms (cremini work best, but use whatever you can get)
1/4 cup scallions, finely chopped can actually use onions too, surprisingly
1/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs (fresh-grated is best)
1/3 cup Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
1 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
2 tsp minced garlic (2-3 cloves)
1/3 tsp salt
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (the kind used for salad dressings)
3 tbsp grated cheese
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/3 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup hot water
1 tbsp fresh Italian parsley, chopped
freshly ground black pepper
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Remove the stems from the mushrooms (set the caps aside), and finely chop them. Put the stems in a large bowl, and add the scallions, bread crumbs, grated cheese, parsley, and salt. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, to moisten all of the crumbs and make a fairly tight stuffing.
Spread the butter all around the bottom of a 9- by- 13- inch Pyrex baking dish. It doesn’t need to be greased; this is just for flavor.
Fill the mushroom caps with the stuffing, and fit them in the baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the mushrooms, and drizzle on the remaining olive oil. If you are making the sauce with the mushrooms, dissolve salt in hot water and add it to the baking dish.
Bake until the mushrooms are crisp on top but tender and the juices are bubbling underneath, about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size. If there is too much juice left in the baking dish, pour it into a small pan and reduce to thicken. Otherwise, stir 1 tbsp chopped parsley into the pan and serve sauce with the mushrooms.
(Note: I would make the sauce separate; I’m not a fan of making it in the oven with the mushrooms. It makes them too moist. Instead, I would suggest making the sauce out of one of the other dishes you are serving with the mushrooms; chicken leavings, for example. This helps wed the dishes better.)