I think I mentioned that you’ll get to see more of Carlo, Emma’s caterer and Prince Charming, in What Happens in Summer. A Sea Kiss Christmas (tentative title) is Emma and Carlo’s story.
So you may be wondering, why make Carlo a caterer? Well, I love to cook and eat and food is sensual. I can picture some sexiness with Emma as Carlo feeds her something fabulous.
Today I’m sharing with you a recipe I made for Thanksgiving and which was a big hit! It’s also very versatile as you can change up the ingredients for lots of fun variations.
Stuffed Mushrooms
12 Extra-large stuffing mushrooms
3 cups cooked rice
4 Italian Sausages
1 cup diced onions
1 stalk celery diced
1/2 diced carrots
1/2 cup parmesan
2 cups ricotta cheese
2 cups gruyere
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup red wine
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil
Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
Wash mushrooms and remove stems. Chop stems into small pieces. Cook diced mushroom stems in olive oil at high heat until almost golden. Add carrots, celery, onions and cook until onions are translucent. Remove skins from Italian sausage and add to onion/mushroom mix. Break up the sausage until it is in very small pieces. Drain off grease and cooking juices and cool.
In large bowl, mix cooked rice, 1 cup gruyere, 1/4 cup parmesan, ricotta, onion/mushroom/sausage until well-blended.
Grease 9×13 pan. Lay mushroom tops in pan. With a spoon, place about 1/4 cup of mixture on each mushroom. Make a nice little mound with the mix. When you are finished filling all the mushrooms, drizzle a little olive oil over each one, then some parmesan and finally the gruyere.
Cook for about 30 minutes and remove pan and add water/red wine to the bottom of the pan to deglaze juices that are already there. Cook for another 15-20 minutes. If gruyere on top is not yet brown, broil for about 2 minutes.
Remove mushrooms to serving dish. Take water/red wine/mushroom drippings from pan and place in a small saucepan. Reduce by half and then stop mushrooms with this sauce. If you want to make it decadent, finish the sauce with a tablespoon of butter.
Variations
- Substitute hot Italian sausage or chorizo for some kick.
- Replace rice with 3 cups stuffing. My fav is Stove Top Corn Bread Stuffing
- Try goat cheese instead of ricotta for a sharper taste.
- Use crab or chopped shrimp instead of the sausage. This is a little trickier since the crab and shrimp can dry out.
- Of course if you’re not a fan of gruyere, try any good melting cheese, like asiago or fontina.
