Breaded Mushrooms

By the time we reached Thanksgiving in Switzerland, I worried I had exhausted my appetizer repertoire on the Cuore Felice girls. I found this easy recipe online from Giada DeLaurentis. One of my favorite parts of the day was hearing them at the end of the short school day in the stairwell to my “penthouse apartment.” We ended up standing over these while anticipating our Thanksgiving plans. Betta and Kelly were headed, appropriately, to Turkey. Sarah was already in Rome. I was staying in Montagnola to decorate for Christmas. We had been to Luzern in October when Christmas decorations were already emerging. The girls had sufficient warning for my lack of restraint in all things Christmas.

To think that Susan and I didn’t like mushrooms until college. . . One day, we ordered crab-stuffed mushrooms at a restaurant and looked at each other as if to say, “What were we thinking?”

1/2 cup Italian-style bread crumbs

1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano

2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

2 T chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

1 T chopped fresh mint leaves

Salt and pepper

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

28 large (2 1/2-inch-diameter) white mushrooms, stemmed

~ Preheat the oven to 400º F.

~ Stir the bread crumbs, Pecorino Romano, garlic, parsley, mint, salt and

pepper, to taste, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium bowl to blend.

~ Drizzle a heavy large baking sheet with about 1 tablespoon olive oil, to coat.

~ Spoon the filling into the mushroom cavities and arrange on the baking sheet, cavity side up.

~ Drizzle remaining oil over the filling in each mushroom.

~ Bake until the mushrooms are tender and the filling is heated through and golden on top,

about 25 minutes.