Chimney Stacks - Savoury Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms! - cooking recipe

Ingredients

6 large portabella mushrooms, wiped clean
125 g good quality sausages or 125 g good quality sausage meat
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 -2 garlic clove, diced finely
1/2 red onion, peeled & diced finely
1/2 red pepper, diced finely
4 drained sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, diced finely
50 g parmesan cheese
freshly ground sea salt
freshly ground mixed peppercorns
50 g grated cheddar cheese
1 -2 fresh tomato, sliced thinly
parsley (to garnish)

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 7.
Take a large earthenware ovenproof dish and pour in half the olive oil, swill it around to cover the base.
Gently remove the stalks from the mushrooms and set aside.
If using sausages, take the sausage casings off them and break them up into a large bowl.
Heat up the remaining olive oil and add the garlic, onion and red pepper. Cook over a medium heat for about 10-15 minutes or until they are soft.
Add the onion, garlic & red pepper mixture to the sausagemeat & give it all a good mix.
Add the sun-dried tomatoes, parmesan cheese, a good twist or two of salt & mixed peppercorns and mix thoroughly again.
Stuff each mushroom with the sausage mixture and place into the oiled ovenproof dish.
Place a tomato slice on each of the mushrooms, making a hole in the middle of each slice.
Sprinkle on the cheddar cheese and push a mushroom stalk into each of the stuffed mushrooms, through the hole in the tomato slice.
Optional: If you have any of the sun-dried tomato oil available, drizzle a little over the top of the mushrooms.
Bake in a preheated oven for 50-60 minutes; it depends on the size of the mushrooms.
Garnish with chopped parsley & serve warm with chunky home-made bread and/or salad.
Allow one mushrom per person as a starter and two per person for lunch or a lght meal.