Caprese Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
I’m back from our road trip to Italy. Fully inspired and still craving those Italian flavors. Hence the Caprese filled portobello mushrooms. Which turned out yuuuuum. These are perfect to serve as an appetizer (one per person) or for lunch with (2 per person). The mozzarella melts beautifully and with the combinations of the rucola you get a nice little bite.
Travelling Light
Sorry to have misguided you. But what I do is anything but travelling light. One of my biggest pleasures when travelling is to check out the supermarket. I just love to see how the products are different. Except in the US, I get overwhelmed by having 15 different options for eggs and having to figure that out. It’s just too much, no one should have that many options.
Anyway, back to last week in Italy. We actually cooked a lot and went to get groceries quite a lot. The vegetables looked so good! And the variety of meat and fish was amazing. Suffice it to say that we ate well. To be able to continue this for at least the first few days back, we bought a bunch of stuff to bring back with us. Of which smoked mozzarella and beefsteak tomato. I was excited to see big porcini mushrooms and thought it was a brilliant idea to bring it back. Not so brilliant. Porcini did not play well with the other ingredients in the bag and we had to throw it out. Live and learn, not travelling with mushrooms anymore.
Tomato
As I mentioned I brought back smoked mozzarella and used it in this dish. But I also made it with normal mozzarella and it tastes great with both. So, don’t worry if you can’t get your hands on smoked mozzarella. I loved the beefsteak tomato as well. In the Netherlands we don’t have that many tomato options. And I’ve come to realize that the tomatoes I actually don’t like are the hybrid tomatoes. Which are bred to be cultivated all year long. And make for the biggest offering here in the Netherlands. But in Italy I actually enjoy eating fresh tomatoes. I particularly liked the beefsteak tomato because it has more meat on eat and less seeds and water.
To finish the dish, I drizzled some balsamic reduction on top. Which I made back at the start of the summer to pair with a watermelon feta salad.
Caprese Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 4 portobello caps
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 100 gram mozzarella diced
- 50 gram beefsteak tomato diced
- 20 gram fresh basil sliced into ribbons
- 100 gram rucola
- balsamic reduction
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C.
- If you don’t get Portobello caps you will have to clean the stems and clear out the center a bit to have place for the filling.
- In a bowl mix 2 tbsp olive oil, garlic, ¼ tsp salt and ¼ tsp black pepper.
- Place the caps on a baking tray and brush with the olive oil mixture.
- Put in the oven for 10-12 minutes until slightly soft.
- While the caps are in the oven make the Caprese filling by mixing the remaining olive oil salt and pepper, tomato, mozzarella and basil.
- Fill the caps and place in the oven for another 10-12 minutes till the mozzarella has melted.
- Serve on a bed of rucola with balsamic reduction.
I added some oven baked sweet potatoes as a side dish and it was just delicious
Oh that’s a great addition. Thank you Lysian!