Baked Mushrooms With Ricotta & Pesto

The rich basil sauce helps balance the tangy ricotta and earthy mushroom flavours of this easy vegetarian starter

• Cooking Time Ready in 35-45 minutes
• Skill Level Easy
• Servings Serves 4 as a starter

Nutrition per serving

• Kcalories

  400

• Protein

  19g

• Carbs

  2g

• Fat

  34g

• Saturates

  12g

• Fibre

  1g

• Sugar

  0g

• Salt

  0.9g

Ingredients

• 5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 16 medium chestnut mushrooms
• 250g tub ricotta
• 2 tbsp green pesto
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 25g freshly grated parmesan (or vegetarian alternative)
• 1 rounded tbsp pesto and 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, preferably flatleaf, to serve

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6/fan 180C. Choose an ovenproof dish big enough to take all the mushrooms in one layer and generously brush it with 1 tbsp of the oil.
2. Trim the mushroom stalks level with their caps, if you need to, then put the mushrooms, rounded cap side down, in the dish. Mix the ricotta, pesto and garlic and spoon into the mushrooms (there's enough to pile it up quite high). Sprinkle over the Parmesan and drizzle over the rest of the oil.
3. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft all the way through and the cheese is just starting to turn golden. If this doesn't happen, put the dish under a preheated grill for a few minutes. If the mushrooms have given off a lot of juice after baking, you can drain some of it off.
4. To serve, blob a little pesto on top of each mushroom and scatter with the parsley. Serve hot or at room temperature.

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