My Italian father-in-law, Settino, makes the BEST stuffed mushrooms! This is his recipe for the best bite-sized appetizer – perfect for holiday entertaining!
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I’ve talked about what a phenomenal cook my father-in-law is many times here on Big Flavors. And today’s post is another tribute to that fact!
I really lucked out marrying into a family with so many fantastic cooks. Growing up, Italian food for me was not at all what I know it as these days.
One of my all-time favorite dishes that my father-in-law makes is his stuffed mushrooms.
He makes these beauties before every single holiday gathering, and occasionally just because before a random weeknight dinner.
I’ve been trying to nail down a recipe for these Italian stuffed mushrooms for yeeeeears now, to no avail.
He’s more than happy to cook his recipes with me but whenever we do the cooking at his house, he usually has already started a little bit of the prep. He’s trying to be helpful, but I know that for me to actually know exactly what goes into recreating a recipe, I need to be present for every.single.step.
It’s not just him – whenever people have recipes that they cook by eye, or by feel (as many phenomenal cooks do!!) they tend to do things that they don’t realize would count as a “recipe step” to an outsider.
Or they think that they use 1/4 cup of something but it’s actually more like 3/4 cup!
Ahem.
Getting in the kitchen and helping/observing/measuring/writing down all of the steps to recipes is key if you want to be able to replicate them over and over again. And it’s something I love doing!
So a few weeks ago, I had my in-laws over and we planned a meal around recreating a few of the many delicious dishes we have enjoyed together over the years.
We started with stuffed artichokes. This recipe is actually from my husband’s grandmother on his mom’s side. We’ve made them before, but that was ages ago, and I wanted to Instant Pot-ify the recipe.
They turned out better than ever, and I’ll be sharing the recipe soon!
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When the artichokes were done, we moved on to the evening’s main course – a pasta dinner that he and I created together back when I first moved to New York.
Back then, we didn’t measure anything, but we’ve been talking about recreating that dish ever since.
We finally did, and it totally rocked!!
And yes, once again, I did an Instant Pot conversion to make it more doable on a weeknight.
That recipe will be coming soon, too. Pinky promise!
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Once the stew was simmering away, we moved on to the stuffed mushrooms!
You need to take the stems out of the mushrooms so you have a nice area to fill with the bread crumb stuffing mixture. Save the stems though – you need to chop a few of them to add to the stuffing, and the rest can be used for another purpose.
The last time we made these I used the stems in a stir-fry and it turned out REALLY well! They’re also great added to a bag in the freezer full of veggie trimmings to make your own homemade vegetable stock!
Over the years, my father-in-law has tried different types of mushrooms but found that smallish white button mushrooms work best. They hold up well to the baking while still retaining a bit of a bite. Cremini mushrooms tend to go mushy.
The amount of time that you need to bake the mushrooms depends on the size of the caps. Small ones will cook up faster than larger ones. We prefer the poppable smaller sized ones anyhow.
Sometimes my grocery store only has really large mushrooms, so get what’s available, just know that you may need to adjust the cooking time a bit.
It was really fun getting in the kitchen to make these delicious bite-sized morsels together. Now that I’ve gone through the entire process with him, I’m confident that I can do it again on my own sometime.
One thing to watch out for when you’re stuffing the actual mushrooms is how much filling you add. You want to pack the bread crumb mixture down so it’s about level with the top of the mushroom cap.
This allows it to have room to grow and dome up as the moisture expands and the dry filling gets nice and tender.
A drizzle of olive oil, an extra grating of Parmesan cheese, and a few bits of tomato and green onion up top before heading into the oven ensures that the mushrooms look their best when they come out of the oven.
My father-in-law doesn’t always add the tomato pieces, but I love ’em, so I plan to always add them when I make these stuffed mushrooms.
I hope your family loves this Italian stuffed mushrooms recipe as much as we do!
What’s your favorite party appetizer? I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below!
Doing some online shopping? Check out my Amazon Shop page for recommendations!
Looking for more bite-sized favorites? Check out these 5-star recipes:
- Garlicky Goat Cheese + Herb Stuffed Peppadews
- French-Inspired Deviled Eggs
- Patatas Bravas with Chipotle Aioli
- Killer Shrimp Cocktail
- Cheesy Bacon + Apple Croissants
- Tuna Tostada with Avocado Dressing + Chipotle Sour Cream
- Marcona Almond + Dried Cherry Popcorn with Crispy Rosemary
- Veggie Cream Cheese Roll-ups
- No Mayo Deviled Eggs
- Mini Turkey Pot Pies with Puff Pastry
- Falafel-Spiced Cucumber Bites
- Honeyed Chorizo & Fig Crostini
- Prosciutto & Brie Crostini with Dried Apricots
- General Tsao’s Chicken Egg Rolls
Recipe for Settino’s Stuffed Mushrooms
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My Italian father-in-law makes the BEST stuffed mushrooms! This is his recipe for the best bite-sized appetizer – perfect for holiday entertaining!
Ingredients
- 16 ounces button mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1 green onion, finely chopped, green and white portions separated
- 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 cup plain bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- 6 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed
- 4-5 grape tomatoes, seeded and diced small
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Lightly spray or drizzle a baking sheet with oil.
- Wipe mushroom caps clean and carefully remove stems. Finely dice a few of the stems until you have 2 tablespoons of diced stems and reserve the rest for another use (see recipe notes).
- Arrange mushrooms on the prepared baking sheet, cavity-side up. Lightly spray or drizzle each cap with oil.
- In a medium bowl, combine chopped mushroom stems, parsley, the white part of the green onion, garlic, bread crumbs, 2 tablespoons Parmesan, salt, and pepper. Drizzle in the olive oil, stirring the mixture as you go, until the mixture holds together like wet sand.
- Stuff each mushroom cap with the mixture, pressing it down into the cavity, making sure that the filling is flush with the top edge of the mushroom (not heaped up – this will give the filling room to grow). Grate a little more Parmesan cheese over each cap, then press a few pieces of tomato and the remaining green onions down into each mushroom. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle a little salt over the tops.
- Bake mushrooms in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.
Notes
Save remaining mushroom stems for making stock or stir-fry.
If the mushroom caps you use are on the larger side, you’ll need to bake them for longer to get them cooked all the way through and nice and golden brown.
Keywords: appetizer, stuffed mushroom, Italian
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