In my quest to get the Mister to eat more veggies, I may have stumbled upon the most unlikely of dishes for Meatless Monday* that he will actually eat! So, some of my favorite things to cook with are mushrooms, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese…Italiany-type ingredients, basically. I would swap out mushrooms for meat any day, but Jonathan… not so much. In fact, there are only a few things he doesn’t eat, but they just so happen to be… mushrooms and tomatoes.

As you know, we’ve recently moved to London and one of the best parts, you might be wondering? Grocery shopping. Sure… London has all sorts of amazing tourism, incredible museums, a Royal Family… but I’m all about the grocery stores! That’s not to say that Paris doesn’t have amazingly fresh produce and all sorts of fancy ingredients, but some things are just impossible to find. Like portobello mushrooms. These things are amazing: baked, sautéed, grilled… absolute perfection. So the other day I ordered a few with my weekly shop because they sell them here (hallelujah!), thinking I’d have them all to myself (cue evil laugh).

So I made our regular dinner, but made a starter for myself of these bad boys. Stuffed with Italian chicken sausage and cherry tomatoes, topped with mozzarella cheese and fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil. In the oven for 15 minutes they went, and the cheesy and bubbly masterpiece that came out…well, there are no words. As I began to dig in to my mushroomy feast, I looked up to see Jonathan curiously eyeing the plate.

Of course I jumped at the occasion and cut him off a little piece, perfectly balanced with a little bit of tomato juice, gooey and crispy mozzarella, and a few little crumbles of the sausage. As he tasted it, then tasted some more… I couldn’t contain myself when he gave his head-nod of approval!

Long story short, these are amazing and if my tomato-hating mushroom-disliking husband approves, then just imagine how good they must be 😉

 

Ingredients:

• 4 portobello mushrooms
• Italian sausage (I used chicken sausage), cooked and crumbled
• Cherry tomatoes, halved
• Fresh basil
• Mozzarella cheese
• Olive oil

Instructions:

1. Wash your mushrooms to make sure you get any dirt off, then pat them dry.
2. Arrange them in a baking dish, then remove the stems (I just throw the stems into the dish, so they’ll bake too)
3. Layer in the toppings: crumbled sausage, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella cheese
4. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on top, then bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven.

*These would be perfect to add to your Meatless Monday rotation – just take out the sausage!