I love mushrooms. I can eat them all day, every day. But until I came to Finland, I didn’t know how vast the world of mushrooms was!
When I lived in Turkey, I mostly only ate champignon. My mother has always been extremely scared of eating mushroom so even this very common mushroom was a subject of discussion at home before each time we ate them (or we even bought them).
Then I came to Finland and I got to see all the different types of delllicious mushrooms – chanterelle, funnel chanterelle, porcini (oh my, I’m starting to drool…). And since then, I’ve loved trying all kinds of new recipes with mushrooms.
Portobello mushrooms are in general the same species as general white champignons, but they differ slightly and especially in maturity. I’ve been thinking about stuffing these large portobello mushrooms for ages and finally I decided to start with one of the easiest flavour combinations that resemble Italian caprese salad. It was easy and fast and it had a great taste! Hope you enjoy!
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Ingredients:
Difficulty: Easy
(for 3 mushrooms)
3 tbsp olive oil
2 small cloves of garlic, mashed
3 portobello mushrooms, stems removed
50-70 grams mozzarella, balls or chopped
7-8 cherry tomatoes (I used different colours), sliced in two
salt to taste
a small bunch of fresh basil, chopped
For serving, optional:
drizzle of balsamic vinegar (I didn’t use because of some stomach issues)
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1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Put a baking paper on an oven tray.
2. Mix olive oil and mashed garlic.
3. Brush both sides of mushrooms with garlicky olive oil and place the mushrooms on the baking paper on top of their outer sides.
4. Divide mozzarella balls / slices and cherry tomatoes between mushrooms. Add salt to taste. Finalise the mushrooms with fresh basil pieces. Put in the medium part of the oven and bake for about 25-30 minutes, until mozzarella starts to brown. Take out of the oven and eat fresh, with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar on top if you like. Multiply the ingredients for more mushrooms. Enjoy!
My Dear Kitchen in Helsinki 
These tomatoes are so cute! I am not even that into mushrooms & these look delicious
Yes I love those tomatoes! ^_^
Hej Asli, I made something similar just last night and my wife completely devoured it off the plate first, lol! I seasoned three large portobelli with salt, pepper, evoo, and dry oregano. Then filled the cup-like underside with white wine, a knob of butter, and a plump garlic clove still in its husk with only the root end cut away. At service I squeezed the now-roasted garlic pulp out and spread it around the cup side. Our local Swedish chain market has portobello mushrooms this week, and I will make your recipe tonight! It’s like an umami pizza, lol. Another great post. :^)
Thanks! And yours sound delicious as well!
Hej Asli, this is a great recipe. I don’t like it very much when people comment about recipes without first making them as-is. So forgive me for breaking my own rule (twice now on this topic, lol). My only change was, by habit, I reached for and used broken up bits of mozzarella di bufala rather than hard mozzarella, even knowing that the melting result of the hard is perhaps a little more predictable. My intent was to plate this at the same time with risotto Milanese and filetto di manzo. (All) The flavor(s) was (were) delicious together. But I must admit, in my preparation the cheese became slightly chewy after letting it cool and then reheating it (because I needed to cool my oven before resting the filetto). Next time I will serve this as a still-hot out-of-the-oven antipasto, and never consider it a garnish or a side.
You could easily call this dish “ cappellino fungo portobello alla caprese”
You are an extremely talented and versatile chef.
Your fan across the Baltic/
/francis
Great! 🤗