The Art of Deconstructed Thanksgiving: A Guide to Delicious Stuffed Mushrooms

As much as I love Thanksgiving and all its traditions, there is one thing that can really bring me down - soggy stuffing. But this year, my friend Sarah Chase gave me a brilliant idea - deconstructing the turkey and instead making the stuffing on the sides with some delicious stuffed mushrooms. It was an easy decision to make once I realized how much flavor and fun could be packed into these tasty little treats.

The first step in creating our deconstructed Thanksgiving is to prepare the mushroom caps. Sarah suggested taking 16 big mushrooms and simply removing their caps, which we would later chop up and add to the stuffing mixture. We placed the caps in a large bowl and marinated them in a mixture of olive oil, Marsala wine, and a pinch of salt. The key to this step was to allow the mushrooms to absorb as much flavor as possible, since they don't have a lot of natural flavor on their own. With about three tablespoons of olive oil and two and a half tablespoons of Marsala wine, our mushroom caps were ready to go.

In the meantime, we moved on to making the stuffing mixture. Sarah suggested using Italian sausage for this recipe, but feel free to use hot or sweet sausage if you prefer. We browned the sausage in a pan until it was nicely cooked, then crumbled it up with a wooden spoon and added some chopped mushroom stems that we had previously removed from the caps. These stems were just as delicious as the caps themselves and would add a nice texture to our stuffing mixture.

Next, we added some flavorful ingredients to our sausage mixture - six scallions, chopped up and ready to go, two cloves of garlic minced, and about two-thirds of a cup of panko breadcrumbs. Panko is a dry Japanese breadflake that adds a nice crunch to the stuffing mixture, which we felt was just what we needed. We also added some mascarpone cheese to give our stuffing a creamy texture and hold it all together.

With our ingredients ready, we moved on to adding the final touches to our stuffing mixture. Sarah suggested using good Italian mascarpone cheese for this recipe, as it has more flavor than other types of cheese. We added about five ounces of mascarpone to our mixture, along with a pinch of salt and pepper to season it. Finally, we added some parmesan cheese and fresh parsley to give our stuffing a nice salty flavor.

The final step was to roast the mushrooms in a pan until they were tender and juicy. Once they were ready, we simply stuffed each mushroom cap with our delicious stuffing mixture and placed them in the oven at 325 degrees for about 50 minutes. The result was absolutely gorgeous - crusty on top, juicy inside, and full of flavor from the Marsala wine, garlic, parsley, and sausage.

I have to say, I was a bit skeptical at first when my friend suggested stuffing mushrooms instead of traditional turkey or sides. But after trying these delicious little treats, I can confidently say that life's not too short to eat one! The combination of flavors and textures in these stuffed mushrooms is truly something special - spicy sausage, tangy Marsala wine, and creamy mascarpone cheese all come together to create a dish that's sure to impress. And the best part? They're easy to make ahead of time and can be refrigerated until you're ready to bake them. So why not give it a try this Thanksgiving? I promise you won't regret it!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enas much as i love thanksgiving and i do the only thing i don't love is soggy stuffing my friend sarah chase gave me the idea to do a deconstructed turkey do the stuffing on the sides and stuff mushrooms so the first thing i'm doing is taking the caps off 16 big mushrooms just take them off like that and later i'm going to chop them up put them into the stuffing so the caps go into a big bowl just to marinate them a little bit mushrooms really can absorb any flavor because they really don't have much flavor themselves so i'm going to put about three tablespoons of olive oil and then two and a half tablespoons of marsala it's a wonderful sweet dessert wine it's very often used in zabayoni you can use cherry if you don't have it okay give it a big toss and that's gonna really absorb the flavors into the mushrooms okay in the meantime i'm gonna make the stuffing two tablespoons of olive oil and three quarters of a pound of italian sausage i'm using sweet italian sausage but you can certainly use hot if you like it hot or combine the two it's good and messy but it makes delicious stuffing i'm just going to let this cook until it's nicely browned i'm just going to wash my hands so this is going to cook for about 8 to 10 minutes i'm just gonna crumble it up with a wooden spoon just to make sure it's nicely browned and then i'm gonna add lots of delicious things but first i'm gonna chop some mushroom stems the ones that i took off and just put them right in you want to use the whole mushroom there's no reason to let this go to waste this is a great thing to make in advance actually for thanksgiving you can assemble the whole dish put in the refrigerator and then just pop it in the oven before dinner okay big rough chop doesn't have to be perfect right into the cooked sausage and now lots of flavors i've got six scallions all chopped up you want this to be really spicy and delicious two cloves of garlic minced just give that a quick saute and now instead of putting bread in the stuffing i'm going to put panko in which is dry japanese bread flakes and i just think they give a nice crispness to it which is just what i'm looking for so about two-thirds of a cup that should be good give it a big stir this is really smelly like good stuffing smell the sausage and the garlic and scallions and some mascarpone to make it nice and creamy and hold it together so i need about five ounces i think this package is eight and three quarters so good part of this package i always use good italian mascarpone it makes a difference mascarpone is a really creamy italian cheese you can probably find the refrigerator section of your grocery or especially food store i always try and find the italian one i just think it has more flavor okay now off the heat i'm gonna add two more things in some salt and pepper first one is parmesan cheese i'm just doing that off the heat because i don't want the parmesan to stick to the pan so about a third of a cup of parmesan cheese that should be good and some fresh parsley about two and a half tablespoons and then salt and pepper teaspoon of salt you want this really well seasoned because remember the mushrooms don't have all that much flavor kind of like polenta it absorbs whatever flavor you give it so that's the stuffing looks delicious i'm going to put it in the mushrooms so i'm just going to roast in a pan put the mushrooms in and then stuff them with the stuffing perfect pan great i think i'm just going to drizzle the extra olive oil and marsala wine over it okay time to stuff the mushrooms just a regular teaspoon just stuff each one and so when this bakes it's going to be just tender and delicious and spicy with the sausage have so much flavor from the marsala wine and garlic parsley so the top's going to get nice and crunchy and delicious and the inside's going to be really moist so these are going to cook at 325 degrees for about 50 minutes and i made it that temperature because the turkey rests at the same temperature but if you're doing with oily pork i mean there's no reason you can't do it without a turkey doing a lot of pork you can roast it at 400 degrees just do it for a little less time into the oven 325 degrees i can't wait till these come out and after 50 minutes this is what you get gorgeous stuffed mushrooms crusty on the top juicy whoever said life's too short to stuff a mushroom couldn't have been more wrong but life's definitely not too short to eat one how beautiful is that my sausage is spicy you can really taste the marsala wine this will be perfect for thanksgiving you\n"