Christmas Favorite: Italian Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms
 | Author:
Eileen Clarke - Rifles and Recipes
Author: Rifles and Recipes |
Christmas Favorite: Italian Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms Eileen Clarke - Rifles and Recipes Italian Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms
Makes 2-3 dozen appetizers
Let’s start with the sausage. A lot of experts will say it just needs to get ‘tacky’ and ‘fuzzy.’ But that’s not enough. Fuzzy? You should be able to grab a pound of sausage, one-handed, without any of it falling to the floor. You should have to scrape it off your fingers with the back of a knife.
Mixing is the key stage in sausage. Whether you mix by hand or with a heavy-duty stand mixer, you have to work quickly so the mix stays cool or the bond you’ve just created will break. Once the sausage mix is out of the freezer, the next few minutes belong to the mixer. Don’t answer the door, and don’t cruise the internet for Christmas presents. Just mix. Or put the mix back in the freezer for when you can dedicate 6 minutes to the transition.
As you mix, a chemical reaction occurs, and the meat and fat form sausage. You know it’s sausage when the ‘Wasp's Nest’ forms. You can easily see the difference in the mixture (in the photo) and, as you pull the sausage from the mixer paddle, you’ll feel the difference. You can tear off big chunks of mix, and it will hold together, transformed from crumbly ground venison to creamy, rich, melt-in-your-mouth sausage.
Cook the sausage in patties for a special Christmas morning breakfast, or do what I do: stuff baby portabella mushrooms with it, and eat until you can’t eat anymore! A Happy Christmas to all.
Ingredients
12 ounces ground venison; 12 ounces ground pork fat; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, only leaves, chopped; 2 tablespoons fresh basil, only leaves, chopped; 2 teaspoons non-iodized salt; ¾ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper; ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
About 1 ½ pounds ‘baby’ portobello mushrooms
Grated Parmesan cheese
Prep
1. Mix the ingredients together with your hands, then put them into a resealable plastic bag. Flatten out the mixture in the bag so it’s pretty even thickness, and place in the freezer for about 2 hours, until it is about 28°F.
2. Break up the partially frozen sausage, and drop the chunks into a stand mixer. (The Classic Cuisinart has the perfectly shaped bowl for this, tapering down at the bottom.) Mix on low 6 minutes, until the ‘Wasp Nest’ forms.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat a skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Break up the sausage and cook until it’s browned and cooked through 4 to 6 minutes.
Rinse, dry and remove the stem of each mushroom. Stuff each mushroom cap with some sausage mixture and place on a baking sheet.
Bake the stuffed mushrooms in the preheated oven for 12 minutes. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over the mushrooms and bake until the cheese is melted and bubbling, about 3 minutes. (The mushrooms should be rather soft as well.)
Eileen’s book, "Sausage Season", has lots of practical info, and more than 70 sausage recipes. https://www.riflesandrecipes.com/406-521-0273.
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PhotoCredit: Eileen Clark
