Hello fall! We’ve missed you and glad you’re back.
Fall brings so many wonderful things: pumpkins, squash and apples… but it’s also the time of year that I always seem to crave mushrooms. It’s great weather for storing and drying them and they tend to pair well with fall produce. I decided to bring back one of my favorite recipes from the beta issue of the magazine, Grandma Jo’s Stuffed Mushrooms. These stuffed mushrooms are great to have out at a Halloween party or Thanksgiving dinner because they are easy to prepare and eat while standing around with a cocktail, or dressed as a monster. The recipe happens to call for tomatoes which due to the warm fall we’ve been having are still around! I got some today in my CSA share and the farmer of Garden of Eve Organic Farm said that he thinks this might be one of the best years for tomatoes he’s ever seen.
Joe Brancaccio of Brancaccio’s Food Shop in Brooklyn (Kensington/Windsor Terrace) shared this delicious, yet simple, recipe with me for the mushroom issue of the magazine last spring. It’s his Grandmother’s recipe. While Grandma Jo was originally from Messina, Sicily, stuffed mushrooms are popular throughout Italy (and Brooklyn). Grandma Jo used button mushrooms because that was what was available to her and affordable, but you can also use criminis, which have a deeper flavor. This special dish, which works wonderfully as an appetizer, is something she would make for birthdays and family celebrations.
Grandma Jo’s Stuffed Mushrooms
1 lb large button or crimini mushrooms
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 slices bacon or prosciutto chopped
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp. grated cheese (parmesan or locatelli romano)
1 tbsp. parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plum tomatoes or tomato sauce
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Clean mushrooms and remove stems.
3. Chop stems into small pieces.
4. Sauté the onion, bacon and mushroom stems in the olive oil to a golden brown.
5. Add bread crumbs, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper and simmer a few minutes longer.
6. Remove from fire, add beaten egg and tomatoes and mix together.
7. Fill caps with stuffing. Drizzle with additional olive oil and bake in oven for 30 minutes.
You can visit Joe at:
Brancaccio’s Food Shop
3011 Fort Hamilton Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11218
718.435.1997
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post by Carli Heggen
spoonful 