Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

[Jafo232]

From my site:

Jeffs Recipes » Stuffed Mushrooms

* 1 pound of hot Italian sausage. The links are better. Remove the sausage from the skin.
* 1 large white onion chopped.
* 3-4 cloves of garlic minced.
* Plain Bread crumbs (just buy one container of it).
* Half a ripe of provolone cheese. Either shred it, or chop it into small pieces.
* 1 bag of the shredded cheddar cheese.
* Olive Oil.
* Red Wine (Preferably Cabernet Sauvignon). This CAN be omitted if you are just out of wine.

Remove the stems from the mushroom and chop them up as small as you can. I usually use a food processor because you end up with a lot of stems.

In a large sauce pan, add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Heat on med/med-high. Once warm, add the minced garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add sausage and break up with a fork for a couple minutes.

Add onions and continue breaking up the sausage. The idea is to make the sausage as small as possible so it is easy to stuff into the mushrooms. Do this for 3-4 minutes.

Add the smashed mushroom stems and mix them into the mixture while breaking up the sausage. Let it cook for a while until the sausage is done and the onions are clear. The stems should be well cooked too.

I usually leave the grease in, but you can drain it if you want, but you will need to replace it with olive oil. It tastes better with the grease.

Add the provolone then add cheddar to taste. You can really use any of your favorite cheese here. I usually use provolone and cheddar, but have used mozzarella from time to time. Usually the cheddar cheese comes in 16 oz packages, I normally dump about half in there. It is really up to you.

Mix until all is melted and combined.

Add bread crumbs one cup at a time until it gets to a thick consistency. Probably about 3-4 cups will do. This just holds the stuffing together. It really depends on how much oil/grease is in the mixture. You should be able to make little meatballs out of it when finished.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Take your mushroom caps and with a spoon, place the mixture in the caps liberally and pack it in their good. Place into the casserole dish as you fill them.

After you fill the dish(s), pour the wine over EACH cap. There should be about a 1/4 inch of wine on the bottom of the pan when you are finished. Cover with tinfoil and bake at 400 for 40 minutes.

If the mushrooms are really large, you might want to bake them a few minutes longer.

When they are done, you may want to remove them with a spoon and place into a container with a ridged bottom to let excess oil/grease drain off.

You can freeze the remaining stuffing if you have any left over.

 

[KYHeirloomer]

Sounds really good, Jafo.

But what is a ripe of provolone? Your recipe calls for half of one of them, whatever it is.

A slight variation is to use portobello mushrooms as the bowls. You want to remove the gills for sure. And most people, in this usage, would prefer them peeled.

Portobello stems have a tendency to turn bitter. So I would discard them, and use finely chopped white mushrooms for the filling.

If you peel them, rub the portobello caps with either evoo or softened butter before popping into the oven.

 

[Jafo232]

We used to always call those circular disks of cheese a ripe, and when you get the ones that look like a half moon, a half ripe.

Perhaps it is an Adirondack thing..

 

[KYHeirloomer]

Hmmmmm? Could be. But I used to live north of Saranac Lake, and never heard the term.

Provolone is normally a long, tubular shape. What you call a ripe is probably just a slice taken out of that tube. Do you have any idea what a ripe or half ripe weighs?

Around here I can buy provolone either presliced, preshredded, or have them cut it off the tube any way I want it. So the weight would give me a better idea what to try.

 

[Jafo232]

Not sure of the actual weight but the full ripe would be the slice at about an inch thick. Halve that, and there is your weight.

 

[KYHeirloomer]

OK. Thanks.

I'll just have them cut a slice about an inch thick. Can always use the rest in something else.

 

[oldbay]

I'm not sure what the question is nor the answer was.

Perhaps you were discussing how much cheese to shred for the stuffed mushroom recipe? Am I right?

 

[KYHeirloomer]

Gee, Old Bay. I don't know why they say you're so slow.

Yeah, that's what we were discussing; trying to figure out what the quantity of a "ripe" was.