Summertime is the best season for having lots of creative food choices such as this recipe for Grilled Portabella Mushroom alla Caprese.
The grape tomatoes are now ruby red ripe and so very sweet and juicy. The basil is fragrant and all you have to do is brush against it and the basil perfumes the air with a wonderful fragrance. We just keep picking and picking the basil and adding it to as many dishes as we can. Of course we always pick extra and the extra gets put in a glass of water. Before we know it, the basil has produced roots and off we go to plant those rooting shoots. If you wander around our yard, you’ll find basil stuck here and there, anywhere there used to be an empty spot.
Once we took the cover off the grill , the grill has been in constant use. Don’t you think food tastes better when it’s grilled? We try to adapt all of our recipes to be grillable (is that even a word?) The inspiration for this recipe came from Marie at Proud Italian Cook. Her dishes never fail to inspire me! The minute I saw this recipe I knew I had to make it. We really love our portabella mushrooms and adding mozzarella cheese, grape tomatoes and basil only took it to the stratosphere.
For our grilled portabella mushroom alla caprese we used a large grapefruit-size mushroom. Honey and I had to split it because we were using it as a side and it was very rich. If we were to make these as appetizers, I think I’d use baseball-size or a little smaller portabella mushrooms. They were super easy to make and would be perfect if you were entertaining. I could wax poetic on their wonderful taste — how about: Ode To A Grilled Portabella Mushroom alla Caprese?
You may be tempted to use fresh mozzarella cheese but don’t. Fresh mozzarella contains too much moisture and it would make the mushrooms soggy — luckily I heeded Marie’s warning about this.
The grilled portabella mushroom was squisito {delicious} . . .
. . . so squisito we made it again the following night. ;-D
Un caro saluto e alla prossima.
- Portabella mushroom -- as many as needed -- gently brush to clean, pop out stem and remove gills by scraping inside with a spoon.
- Mozzarella cheese -- grated
- Grape tomatoes -- sliced in half
- Fresh basil -- thinly sliced ( chiffonade)
- olive oil for brushing the outside of the portabella mushroom
- Optional: Balsamic glaze ( we got ours at Trader Joe)
- Preheat grill 350 F.
- Brush the outside of the mushroom with olive oil, including the top rim.
- Put the tomatoes in a bowl with the basil. Pour a little olive oil in with the ingredients and salt and pepper. Mix and let sit for a few minutes.
- Sprinkle cheese in the cap of the mushrooms, then spoon some of the tomatoes and basil on top of the cheese.
- **Grill the mushroom until the cheese melts but be careful not to overcook the mushroom.
- Place the mushroom on plate and drizzle with balsamic glaze if desired.
- Serve immediately.
- ** You can bake the mushroom(s) in a preheated 400 F oven. The mushrooms should be placed on a foil lined baking sheet.
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