Why you'll love this recipe

Have you ever wondered what to do with fresh ricotta? Cooking with fresh ricotta doesn't have to be complicated.

Take fresh ricotta. Mix in lemon zest, chilli, fresh oregano and a handful of Parmesan. Stuff this super flavoured ricotta into mushroom cups before baking until golden and you have the best baked mushrooms stuffed with ricotta you'll ever eat!

By nature, this recipe is vegetarian but meat lovers won't feel that they're missing out.

If you bought too much, don't worry, yes you can freeze ricotta cheese to save it for the next recipe.

For complete ingredient quantities and full instructions, please scroll to the printable recipe card bottom of the page.

Ingredients

This is exactly what good Italian cooking is about. The ingredients aren't fancy or hard to find. Together the flavours absolutely sing and dance in your mouth! I love to use ricotta to stuff zucchini, in cheesecakes or to make wonderfully light Italian doughnuts called sfinge.

mushrooms in baking dish filled with ricotta.

Mushroom picking

There's nothing quite like picking wild mushrooms just after it has rained and the soil is still damp. As a kid, I loved the excitement of finding the 'right' mushrooms. We usually looked in the cow paddock. Oh, the smell of wild mushrooms is so good! Just not so good if you pick the 'wrong' one. Be very careful.

close up of mushrooms filled with ricotta.

Old Italian traditions to check for 'good' mushrooms

Because Italians love foraging and mushrooms can be tricky, there is a couple of legends that have persisted. Firstly we always looked at the gills underneath - if they were a pinky colour that was good. A ring around the stem. Perfect. But one last test - boil the mushrooms with garlic...if the garlic remained white, all is well. As much as I loved picking mushrooms, I'm not going to recommend these methods because my sister became very ill after all the tests. Now I forage in the supermarket for my mushrooms. Not nearly as much fun but a lot safer!

Baked mushrooms stuffed with ricotta

This recipe is adapted from one of Jamie Oliver's. Oregano and lemon are the perfect combination, I think. Don't overcook these mushrooms but if the golden brown tops are lacking colour, give them a flash under a hot grill. Serve these baked mushrooms stuffed with ricotta as an appetiser or a side dish.

Either way, you'll be buying more fresh ricotta because this is such a great recipe to make again and again.

This dish works well as a side and pairs nicely with my delicious instant pot cauliflower.

Recipe