Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

I've never liked raw mushrooms.

Culinary blasphemy, I know. But it's true. And because of this, salads containing raw mushrooms hold no sway for me. And stuffed mushrooms, though they smell and sound great, never really tasted as good to me as they could.

Until someone taught me how to make these. These mushrooms are sauteed before filling. And they contain cream cheese. Everything tastes better with cream cheese. Don't you think so?


Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms
makes about 24 stuffed mushroom caps

1 large package white button mushrooms; select a package with good-sized mushrooms
4 tablespoons butter, divided
1 pound breakfast sausage
1 8-ounce package cream cheese

Clean mushrooms; remove stems and set aside. Mushroom stems may be chopped and added to the filling, if desired; otherwise, refrigerate for another use.





In a large saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat. Add mushroom caps bottom-up (this is important) and saute for about 3 minutes, or until you see liquid in the mushroom centers. Turn over and saute another 2 minutes.





Now I needed to cook all of my mushroom caps in two batches, and that's why I indicated 4 tablespoons of butter--2T for the first batch, 2T for the second.





Transfer all cooked mushroom caps to a rimmed baking sheet. Meanwhile, look at all that mushroomy goodness left in your pan. Increase flame to medium.





To your mushroom liquid, add sausage and break up. Cook, stirring often, until sausage is cooked through and liquid is reduced by half. Remove from heat and stir in cream cheese until melted. Note: avoid the urge to salt your meat while cooking. The sausage and cream cheese filling tends to be rather salty without using any extra salt in the cooking process.







Stuff prepared mushroom caps. May now be frozen or refrigerated overnight.


This one is not my photo.

Preheat oven to 350*F. Bake stuffed mushrooms for 30 minutes or until heated through. Serve hot.