Inspiration: Why is pizza so delicious? I could probably eat it every single day (and did living in New York doing commercial real estate nyc) and not tire of it for quite some time, if ever. From frozen pizzas from the grocery store all of the way to the most gourmet pizza with goat cheese and arugula that we had in Paris, I just love them all. Luckily, I have some sort of self restraint every once in a while. And yet….I truly do need a good pizza fix every now and then. Who doesn’t?

What We Loved: The awesome thing about making a pizza on a portabella mushroom is that since mushrooms are already a great pizza topping, this is basically like eating a nice pile of pizza toppings. Perfect. I actually enjoyed these more than any meal that I’ve made in quite some time. All of the flavor components of what I consider a great classic pizza were there – the characteristic marinara sauce, the essential spicy pepperoni, and plenty of gooey cheese. I was truly surprised by how pizza-like these tasted and by how well they satisfied that need for a great pizza. From now on, whenever a pizza craving hits, I’ll be serving up these little guys in our house.

Tips: Make sure to cook your mushrooms long enough so that the water in the mushrooms is released into your baking pan. For me, a half an hour was perfect. Similarly, be sure to cook down your tomato sauce until it’s nice and thick, too. If you don’t do either of those things, the mushrooms might end up being watery, which is never good.

Portabella Pizzas with Pepperoni and Black Olives
Source: Inspired from Primal-icious, to Serve 2

4 portabella mushroom caps
2 tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 14 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons oregano
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
Smoked mozzarella cheese, freshly shredded
Pepperoni slices (I used 1 large slice per mushroom)
Black olives, sliced
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Italian seasoning

1. Clean the mushrooms with water. Cut the stems out of the mushroom caps, and finely dice. Place the mushroom caps into a baking dish and set aside.

2. Heat about a tablespoon of butter in a sauce pan. Add the garlic and diced mushroom stems, stirring until the garlic is fragrant. Add the tomatoes, oregano, an additional tablespoon of butter, and a sprinkle of Kosher salt and black pepper. Cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally and smashing the tomatoes with your spoon, until the tomatoes are broken down and the sauce is nice and thick.

3. Divide the tomato sauce between the four mushroom caps. Top with smoked mozzarella, pepperoni, black olives, Parmesan, and a sprinkle of Italian seasoning.

4. Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes, until the water from the mushrooms has been released into the baking dish and the cheese on top of the mushrooms is starting to brown.