Sweetie loves to eat mushrooms. He often chooses menu items with mushrooms when we eat out and he loves it when I add mushrooms to what I'm cooking. When I saw this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for a UnStuffed Mushroom Casserole where mushrooms are the star I knew that I had to make it. I'm a fan of mushrooms, too.
The recipe made much more than we could eat, given that it is fairly rich, so I made 1/3 of it and that was just right. We each had a hearty portion for dinner last night and then he had leftovers for lunch today. The recipe below is the actual recipe from her blog, so it serves 8. The concept is that you take a lot of the items that you would stuff individual mushrooms with and combine them with cooked mushrooms to make a casserole. It works!
I found that I needed to add about 1/4 cup very hot water to the bowl where I was mixing the cooked mushroom mixture and the cream cheese. Maybe I let the mushroom mixture cook too long? Anyway I think you are better off with the full recipe.
This is a really delicious and fairly rich dish. If you love mushrooms, do make this! I used fairly large crimini mushrooms instead of button ones, so that may be why mine was drier, too, but the brown mushrooms really have a good solid mushroom flavor.
I messed up by adding the minced parsley to the crumb mixture that goes on top of the mushroom mixture once its in the casserole, but I did add some minced parsley to the mushroom mixture once I realized my mistake. It meant that I didn't add any on top after it was cooked.
This makes a great main course if you serve it with a whole grain and some greens or a salad or green veg. Sauteed winter squash would go well with it, too. A crusty bread served with it allows you to scoop up any sauce that doesn't cling to the mushrooms. We served it with bread, spinach and pork chops, but I only ate half the pork chop because the casserole is fairly filling!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Unstuffed Mushroom Casserole
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 pounds medium white button mushrooms, quartered
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 8 ounces cream cheese, cut into pieces
- 1 cup grated gruyere, comte, or cheddar etc.
- 2 cups panko-style breadcrumbs
- 1 cup grated parmesan
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
In a large frying pan (12-inch is ideal here) over medium-high heat, heat half (3 tablespoons) of the olive oil. Once it’s very hot, add half (1.5 pounds, but seriously, just eyeball this) of your mushrooms but don’t move them yet. Give them 1 to 2 minutes to brown underneath before adding 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, a few grinds of black pepper, and half the garlic, then moving them around, trying to get them to brown on more sides until they begin releasing their liquid. Some have a little, some have a lot; in both cases you can to cook the mushrooms, stirring, until the liquid mostly, but not fully, cooks off — a thin puddle should remain. Scrape these mushrooms into a large bowl and repeat the process with the remaining olive oil, mushrooms, and garlic, plus more salt and pepper.
Once the second half of the mushrooms have mostly cooked off their liquid, add everything in the pan to the first half of mushrooms in the bowl. Add diced cream cheese and stir just until combined (the remaining liquid from the mushrooms should help it get saucy), then half of the panko (1 cup), all of the gruyere, half of the parmesan (1/2 cup), and most of the parsley (reserve some for garnish) and stir to combine. Transfer to a 2-quart baking dish.
Combine the butter and remaining panko (1 cup) and parmesan (1/2 cup) in a bowl with a couple pinches of salt. Sprinkle over top of the mushrooms
and bake until the breadcrumbs are light golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining parsley and eat right away.
To make this ahead of time, please read: Since I’m usually making this to entertain and like to get things out of the way, I pause the recipe (in the fridge until needed, covered with foil) where you transfer the mixture to a baking dish. To finish cooking, I first get the mushroom mixture warm without the crumbs, leaving the foil on, about 10 minutes, and then bake it the rest of the way with the crumbs on, until they’re a light golden brown, usually another 25 minutes. If you put the crumbs on sooner, they get too dark. If you finish baking the dish with crumbs and later rewarm it, the mushrooms get a little overcooked and the crumbs too toasty.
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