Stuffed 'Shrooms, OneManParty style

Here is Art cooking up his own version of stuffed mushrooms. Envision two small kids and a dog running through the kitchen, the basketball play-offs on the TV (Nuggets getting their asses kicked by the Lakers). Outside, the sun has slipped behind the mountains but the late May sky hold the light. The smell of flowers and freshly mown lawns mingle with the sausage and garlic, mmmmmmm!

Art served up some garlic bread “ghetto style” as he called it, since we ate up all the artisan bread with the wine and cheese before dinner. He used Orowheat Country Buttermilk bread, spread with butter, garlic powder, and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, toasted in the oven.

We ate late as is customary at the Taylors’, but where you never go away hungry. The stuffed mushrooms were superb, as was the view from his deck, with glass of wine in hand.

Ingredients:

Portabella, or large Crimini mushrooms, 1 per person
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
1 can tomato paste
1-2 cloves garlic or garlic powder.
1 lb. Italian sausage
Italian bread crumbs
¼ - ½ green pepper, minced fine
½ - 1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
Pasta


De-stem and hollow out mushrooms, saving the stems and chopping them fine.
Slowly brown the sausage in extra-virgin olive oil, breaking up into chunks. Drain. Set aside about 2/3 of the sausage for the sauce. The remaining third, still in the skillet, continue to cook on low and mince up fine with the spatula. Add green pepper and half the chopped mushroom stems. Lightly brown, then add half the can of tomato paste with a little water – maybe half a cup. You want it to be thick. Add some garlic, and shake in Italian bread crumbs. Adjust water, bread crumbs and sauce until a thick consistency is reached. Spoon this mixture into the hollowed out mushrooms, and place in a baking dish prepared with olive oil. Drizzle with olive oil and cook in 350 oven for 20 minutes; take out, sprinkle with shredded Mozzarella and put back in the oven 5-10 minutes, or until cheese melts.

While mushrooms are in the oven, make a sauce with the jar of spaghetti sauce, the rest of the sausage, garlic, tomato paste, green pepper and mushroom stems. Simmer on low.
While cheese is melting on mushroom caps, boil pasta.

When pasta is ready and drained, serve up with a mushroom on top the pasta, and sauce over all.


Bon appetit!