Recipe: Cheesy pesto and bacon stuffed mushrooms

Cheesy pesto and bacon stuffed mushrooms. Photo / Olivia Moore - That Green Olive

This is one of those recipes born out of a desire to empty the fridge — particularly those jars of antipasto ingredients we enjoyed for summertime grazing, but now sit quarter-empty taking up space in the fridge.

I’ve used sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, basil pesto and cheddar cheese — you can swap these ingredients out as you please. Use chopped roasted veges instead of the sundried tomatoes and olives, or your favourite seasonal relish instead of basil pesto. Swap out some of the cheddar for parmesan if you like — or some mozzarella leftover from last night’s pizza. Make it your own!

Serve these as a side for dinner, or with a salad for lunch. They’re also great for parties and entertaining.

Go to Olivia’s website for more recipes: www.thatgreenolive.com

Serves 6-8

● 2 rashers streaky bacon

● 2 onions, finely chopped

● 2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

● 1 large handful spinach leaves

● 50g grated cheddar

● 5 sundried tomato halves

● 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley

● 2 tbsp basil pesto

● 2 large kalamata olives, finely chopped

● ¼ tsp salt

● 20-25 large white button mushrooms

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C fan bake.

2. Preheat a non-stick frying pan over high heat. Add bacon and fry 4-5 minutes, flipping halfway, until crisp on both sides. Remove from pan.

3. Add 1 tbsp olive oil to the pan, and add onion and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring often, then add spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes until wilted.

4. Remove pan from heat. Chop the bacon and add to the pan along with the cheese, sundried tomatoes, parsley, pesto, olives and salt. Stir until well mixed.

5. Gently remove the stalks from the mushrooms — they should easily pop out. Stuff each mushroom tightly with the filling, and arrange on a roasting tray. Drizzle with oil and bake for 20 minutes, until nicely browned and juicy. Serve hot.

Olivia Moore and her Taupō business That Green Olive offer recipe development, food photography – in studio or on location – for restaurants and cafes, recipe video creation and social media content creation.