Name: Sausage-and-Cheddar Stuffed Mushrooms
Total time: 1 h 35 min
Ingredients: 24 white mushrooms (1½ to 2 inches in diameter); 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar; 1 1/4 teaspoons table salt , divided; 1 teaspoon pepper , divided; 12 ounces hot Italian sausage , casings removed; 3 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese , shredded (3⁄4 cup); 4 scallions , sliced thin; 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs; 3 tablespoons white wine; 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme; 3 garlic cloves , minced; 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Why This Recipe Works

Poorly made stuffed mushrooms can be squidgy and soggy in texture and bland with absolutely no mushroom flavor. Our goal was stuffed mushrooms with deep mushroom flavor and an irresistible, savory filling worthy of a grand soiree or a quiet night on the couch with a favorite movie. To that end, we started by stemming two dozen white mushrooms and seasoning the caps with oil, sweet-tart balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. We chose hot Italian sausage for our stuffing base and happily found that we didn’t need to cook it before filling the caps. We simply combined the raw sausage with tangy extra-sharp cheddar, scallions, panko bread crumbs to bind, a few splashes of white wine for acidity, fresh thyme, and minced garlic and used this mixture to fill the caps. Then we roasted the little beauties in a skillet in the oven. Using a skillet rather than a baking sheet to roast the mushrooms captured and concentrated the mushrooms’ juice, resulting in deeper flavor as the mushrooms reabsorbed this potent liquid.

Before You Begin

You will need about 1½ pounds of mushrooms to yield the 24 called for in this recipe.

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Remove stems from mushrooms and chop half of stems fine; discard remaining stems. Whisk oil, vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper together in medium bowl. Add mushroom caps and toss to coat with oil mixture; set aside.

Using your hands, thoroughly combine sausage, cheddar, scallions, panko, wine, thyme, garlic, mushroom stems, remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, and remaining ½ teaspoon pepper in bowl.

Spray 12-inch ovensafe skillet (or 13 by 9-inch baking dish) with vegetable oil spray. Fill mushroom caps with sausage mixture and place in prepared skillet. Sprinkle tops of filled mushrooms with Parmesan. (Stuffed mushrooms can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 24 hours.)

Bake until cooked through and lightly browned on top, about 35 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes. Transfer to platter and serve.