Easy Christmas Appetizer - Mom's Stuffed Mushrooms

One appetizer that everyone in our family enjoys is Mom's Stuffed Mushrooms. They are easy to make, only take a few minutes in the oven and for those who don't have them often or know how simple they are, impressive. We usually save them for a Christmas appetizer along with a traditional Italian cheese platter, and/or an antipasto, but sometimes will serve them as a side dish to perk up an otherwise ordinary meal. Five pounds of mushrooms will serve at least 10 people as an appetizer. If the mushrooms aren't too large they can be eaten with fingers.

Here is my mom's easy recipe. Following it will be a couple of variations you might want to try.

Ingredients:

1 Basket (approximately 5 lbs) or white mushrooms with medium to large caps. If these large baskets aren't available in your area you can substitute with5,1 lb packages.

2 large containers of Italian Seasons bread crumbs

Virgin Olive Oil

1 large bunch of fresh Italian Parsley

1 head of fresh garlic (optional)

Grated Parmesan Cheese to taste (optional)

Preparation:

1) Clean each mushroom individually using a damp, clean cloth. Do not brush or use copious amounts of water. Then take out the stems, leaving only the caps. Some people chop the stems up very finely and include them in the stuffing. Mom never did.

2) Cover the bottom of a large skillet with the Olive Oil. If you are going to include the garlic, mince it and add to the olive oil. Use low heat and sauté' the garlic until it just starts to cook. Add the bread crumbs, finely chopped parsley and toss in the pan, adding olive oil so as to make the mixture moist but not wet. If you are adding the cheese now is the time to do it. The mixture should be about 2/3 bread crumbs, 1/3 parsley.

3) On large lightly oiled cookie sheets place the cleaned and stemmed mushroom caps. Then fill the caps with the stuffing mixture. Drizzle some olive oil over each mushroom and bake in the oven at 350 degrees until the mushrooms are "just cooked" ( the color of the mushroom darkens).

4) Transfer the cooked stuffed mushrooms to a platter and serve.

Easy Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Use the same ingredients, preparation and cook time as Mom's Stuffing and add chopped crab meat. When I do this I change the final mixture to 1/3 bread crumbs, 1/3 parsley, 1/3 chopped crab meat. You can experiment with the percentages until you get it the way you like.

Easy Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

The different ingredient here is 1 lb of sweet Italian Sausage, taken out of their casings, chop it into very small pieces and sautéed along with the garlic in the skillet. After that the ingredients, preparation and cook time is the same as in Mom's recipe. Again, change the mixture to 1/3 bread crumbs, 1/3 parsley, 1/3 chopped, sautéed sausage meat.