Stuffed mushrooms recipe

Whether you’re looking for a quick and easy midweek supper or need a dish that will impress your guests (without having to spend hours in the kitchen), stuffed mushrooms are always a wonderful choice. 

And who better to take inspiration from than Marco Pierre White? Here’s his delicious stuffed mushroom recipe in full, along with some ideas on how to serve them for that extra wow factor.

What are stuffed mushrooms?

As the name implies, stuffed mushrooms are mushrooms which have been hollowed out and then filled to the brim with tasty ingredients. You can use any type of mushroom – portobello mushrooms are a good choice as they’re big, hearty and have plenty of space to add fillings, but you could also use button mushrooms, cremini mushrooms, chestnut mushrooms, porcini mushrooms, or any other kind you like.

A variety of different ingredients can be used for the filling, such as cheese, breadcrumbs, garlic, spinach, walnut, sausage meat, or even with more mushrooms. Once stuffed, they’re usually baked and served warm.

There’s no real consensus on where stuffed mushrooms originated, but it’s generally thought that they come from Italy. Some people think that they were first made in the late 19th or early 20th century, while others believe they were popular in Renaissance Italy during the 1500s.

Either way, they’re now a popular dish that can be found on menus around the world. There are lots of different ways you can make stuffed mushrooms, which is part of their appeal. In his BBC Maestro course, Delicious Vegetarian Cooking, Marco Pierre White explains his history of making the dish:

“Let me take you back to the '70s, when I was a boy at the Hotel St George in Harrogate. I used to stuff mushrooms. Very simple. Years later, we used to do a more sophisticated version with porcini, and with a maxim duxelles and the herb breadcrumbs. But either way, they’re both delicious.”

Whether you choose to keep it simple or make it fancy, one thing’s for sure: stuffed mushrooms will always be a hit at the dinner table.

How to make stuffed mushrooms

Who better to learn from than Marco Pierre White himself? His stuffed mushrooms recipe uses duxelles – a mixture of chestnut mushrooms, Madeira, ruby port, and butter – as the filling for portobello mushrooms.

As he explains in his course, he was “taught to serve this mushroom dish as a wonderful garnish for a steak, but I now serve it as a fabulous starter or main course.”

Here’s how to make it at home.

Stuffed mushrooms with a herb crust

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 6 portobello mushrooms
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt
• Ground white pepper

For the duxelles filling:

• 500g chestnut mushrooms
• 100ml Madeira (optional)
• 100ml ruby port (optional)
• 20g unsalted butter, cubed

The herb crust:

• 20g breadcrumbs
• Handful of flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, coarsely chopped

Method:

1. Pull off and discard the outer skin from the caps of the portobello mushrooms. Then pop out and discard the stalks.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Lay the mushrooms in the pan, cap-side up, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 2–3 minutes.
3. Turn the mushrooms over, season again, and continue to cook. As they cook, they’ll release their water content and roast, intensifying the flavours of the mushrooms.
4. Insert the tip of a knife into a mushroom and if it meets no resistance, the mushroom is cooked.
5. Transfer the mushrooms to a baking tray, leaving them to rest and release their juices.

For the duxelles filling:

1. Blend the chestnut mushrooms in a food processor (or with a handheld blender) to a puree.
2. Transfer the puree to a large saucepan and cook it over a medium-high heat. Stir with a spatula, bringing the puree down from the sides of the pan. Allow the water content to evaporate. If you run the spatula down the middle of the puree and you can see the water content gather in the centre of the pan, continue to cook, reducing the mushrooms so that they become a paste, quite dry but intense in flavour. (Where possible, reduce rapidly over a high heat to retain the freshness).
3. If using port and Madeira, pour these in now and let them reduce by about 90 percent.
4. Remove the pan from the heat, add the butter and work it in with the spatula. Season with salt.
5. Preheat the oven to 180°C / Fan 160°C / Gas Mark 4.
6. Dab the rested portobello mushrooms with kitchen paper to remove excess juices and lay them, cap-side down, in a casserole dish.
7. Spoon a generous amount of the duxelles mixture into the cavity of each mushroom.

Make the herb crust: 

1. In a food processor, or using a handheld blender, blitz the breadcrumbs, most of the parsley and garlic to a fine powder.
2. Add 2–3 tablespoons of olive oil and work it through. Sprinkle the herb crust over the mushrooms. Drizzle a little olive oil over the crust.
3. Bake the mushrooms for 15–20 mins.
4. Scatter with the rest of the parsley, season with sea salt, drizzle with a little more oil and serve.

If you can, Marco advises making the duxelles the day before to increase the richness of the flavours. He says:

“The truth is, if you make it today and then use it tomorrow, the intensity is way greater because it’s matured. So, when possible, in a perfect world, make it a day in advance.”

If you want to make this recipe vegan, switch the butter for olive oil or a vegan butter alternative.

How to serve stuffed mushrooms

As Marco says, these stuffed mushrooms are “wonderful as a garnish, but also wonderful as a main course or a starter. Stuffed mushrooms are just delicious.”

If you want to serve them as a lighter main dish, let the stuffed mushrooms be the star of the show and keep the rest of the plate simple with warm crusty bread and a lightly dressed green salad.

Alternatively, for a hearty autumn or winter feast, serve them with potatoes. You could do boiled new potatoes, chunky chips, crispy roast potatoes, or Marco’s recipe for Pommes Maxim. You could try pairing your potatoes with steamed cabbage or green beans.

As portobello mushrooms have a meaty texture, they’re often used as the vegetarian star of the show. However, if you’re not a vegetarian and want to add some meat to your main course, then these stuffed mushrooms pair well with a variety of different meat dishes. Marco Pierre White was originally taught to serve duxelles as a garnish to steak, so steak is the natural choice for a meat pairing, but feel free to choose whatever meat you prefer.

If you’re looking for more inspiration for dishes to serve with your stuffed mushrooms, or you simply want to expand your repertoire, take a look at our online cooking courses.

 As well as two courses from Marco Pierre White, we have a fantastic selection of other courses from some of the best chefs in the world, such as Richard Bertinet, Vineet Bhatia, and Pierre Koffmann.