Ricotta and Spinach Stuffed Portabellos

I made these mushrooms last year as a first course when our friends Nick and Kelly came over for dinner. Nick liked them and Kelly asked me for the recipe so she can make it for him. I had to make it again because I didn't remember what I did (this was pre-blog and I didn't write it down). I hope it tasted as good as it did last time and again I don't have exact measurements this is a taste as you go kind of thing but I'll do my best. I bet that won't help Kelly too much. Oops.

Ingredients:

4 portabello mushrooms, stems removed and reserved
1- 10 oz box frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
part skim ricotta cheese
About 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese plus more for sprinkling on the top
About 1/4 cup romano cheese
salt and pepper
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup white wine
extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Clean mushrooms by gently wiping with paper towel or vegetable brush. Do not rinse. Clean the stems and remove the woody ends. Chop and set aside.

2. Saute onion and stems in extra virgin olive oil, then add garlic. Let cook for about 1 minute. Add white wine and let it simmer for a minute or two.

2. Add spinach breaking it up with a spoon and add a little oil if you need to. Combine spinach with onion mixture, season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.

3. Once cooled add some ricotta a couple of tablespoons and a time and stir until it's a creamy mixture but not an overwhelming amount of ricotta. You want to still taste the spinach. This will probably come out to about 1/2 cup to 1 cup. Add romano cheese and taste it. Add more salt, pepper or cheese until it's seasoned to your taste.

4. In the meantime, heat a medium saute pan and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Add mushrooms to the pan and season both sides with salt and pepper. When mushrooms are cooked, top them with a good amount of spinach ricotta filling and sprinkle with a little more mozzarella. Put under the broiled to heat through and melt cheese.

Serve as a side dish or first course.


note - I didn't use the broiler to melt the cheese this time because it was really hot in the kitchen that day. You can skip this step if you want to.