Printer Friendly RecipeBY MICHAEL PENDLEY AUTHOR OF TIMBER 2 TABLE WILD GAME RECIPESJULY 26, 2017Looking for a wild-game appetizer or a main course you don’t see every day? Like lasagna? Yea, me too. We stuffed these jumbo portabella mushroom caps with lasagna ingredients and baked them till the whole-milk mozzarella was golden brown and bubbly. We even tossed in a few baby spinach leaves to make it sort of healthy.
Serve the mushrooms as a heavy appetizer or as a main course.
Brown your venison and simmer it with tomato sauce and Italian seasonings to make a nice meaty red sauce for the base layer of your lasagna mushrooms.
The ricotta and mozzarella melt to make a mini lasagna inside the mushroom cap.
Ingredients
8 portabella mushrooms
Meat Sauce
2 pounds ground venison
1 16-ounce can tomato sauce
2 ounces tomato paste
1 cup water
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon salt
2 cloves garlic
minced
Stuffing
4 lasagna noodles
cooked al dente
2 cups ricotta cheese
16 ounces whole-milk mozzarella
sliced
baby spinach leaves
8 ounces pepperoni
8 ounces shredded parmesan cheese
Cooking Instructions
Brown the ground venison in a skillet. Add the garlic, Italian seasoning, tomato sauce, tomato paste, salt, and water. Simmer for at least 30 minutes and up to two hours.
Gather ingredients so that you can stuff each mushroom cap.
While the sauce simmers, add the lasagna noodles to boiling water. Cook for 5 minutes or until they are just flexible and still have a bit of bite to the texture.
Start by using a spoon to gently scoop out the gills from the inside of the mushroom caps. Brush the mushrooms on both sides with olive oil. Spoon in meat sauce to almost level with the top of the mushroom.
Top the meat sauce with a section of lasagna noodle and a spoonful of ricotta cheese.
Cut the lasagna noodles into thirds or halves, depending on the size of your mushroom cap. Lay a section of noodle over the venison. Spoon on some ricotta cheese and top with baby spinach leaves. Top the spinach with a few pepperoni slices and a slice or two of whole milk mozzarella. Once all the mushrooms have been filled, bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
Layer the ingredients inside the mushroom cap.