Wednesday is for Foodies ~ Spending the middle of the week in the heart of the home.
In the gardening season this could be made with chopped Swiss chard, but in the winter it’s great with the organic baby spinach that’s widely available in supermarkets.
Spinach, lemon and basil is always a great combination. This recipe uses some basil pesto and some of the chopped fresh basil I was talking about last Friday.
The smoked mozzarella gives the mushrooms a hardy, meaty flavor. This is wonderful vegetarian main dish but it also be served as a side dish along with meat or another veggie entrée.
Serves four people as a side, two as an entrée unless really large Portobellos are used.
Heat oven to 350 degrees
Ingredients:
4 medium to large Portobello mushroom caps
1 package of baby spinach or 5 to 8 leaves chard from the garden
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 slices smoked mozzarella cheese, about ¼ inch thick (if smoked cheese isn’t available you can use plain)
2 Tablespoons pesto – frozen homemade or store bought
zest of 1 lemon
A tablespoon of olive oil for brushing the edges of the mushroom before baking
Four to six sprigs of fresh basil if available
Ingredients: I used the pesto we made and froze using our garden basil last summer. You can also buy fresh pesto in most supermarkets – look for it in or near the produce section.
Wipe off mushroom caps with a damp paper towel and remove the stems. Place them on a parchment covered or greased cookie sheet.
When I was wiping these one of them broke. You’ll see what I did about that in a second.
Steam spinach or chard in a pan with about an inch of water for about 5 minutes until completely wilted.
Steam spinach with just a small amount of water in the bottom of the pan. It takes about 3 to 5 minutes to be fully wilted.
Pour into a colander or sieve and press most of the water out with a spoon.
Press the excess moisture out with a spoon. If you like making soup, collect that water and save it for soup stock.
Place one slice of mozzarella on each mushroom cap.
See how I pushed the broken one up against one of the others? That will hold everything in the cap…once it’s cooked the cheese will keep the pieces together.
Mix the spinach with the Parmesan cheese, grated lemon rind and pesto.
I chopped the spinach just a bit before mixing these ingredients together.
Divide the spinach mix between the mushroom caps. Brush the edges with olive oil, or spritz with an olive oil spray.
I use an inexpensive paint brush to brush the edges of the mushrooms with olive oil.
Bake in the oven for about twenty minutes. It’s normal for the mushrooms to leak liquid onto the cooking sheet. I often dab this up with a paper towel so that it doesn’t drip on the bottom of the oven.
Chop the fresh basil and sprinkle on the top of the mushrooms just before serving.
Chopping fresh basil is a form of aromatherapy in the winter. The smell of summer!
The edge of the broken one sagged a bit…see how I am hiding that with a sprig of fresh basil? Growing herbs in the kitchen window are useful for more than just flavor.
This is a dish that’s great heated up for lunch the next day, so make more than you need and box some for tomorrow.
