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My mom is devastated, y’all. Seriously, her favorite Italian restaurant, Zio’s, closed their doors unexpectedly… and she didn’t even get to go one last time. One of our absolute favorite dishes to share was an appetizer… stuffed mushrooms. Loaded Italian Stuffed Mushrooms. Oh my goodness, these were good. Now, the chef wouldn’t share his recipe when asked, but he was kind enough to give me an idea of the ingredients they had in theirs, and this is a super close approximation to the real deal… but in jumbo form. See, they used baby bella mushrooms for their dish, but I’m all about the full-sized portabella mushrooms for mine.

For these stuffed mushrooms, you’ll want to remove the stems (save them!) from portabella mushrooms. I made 5 mushrooms, so the recipe I’m sharing is for about that many, but you can definitely scale it up or down. After taking the stems off carefully, wash and dry the portabella mushrooms carefully, then brush them with olive oil on both sides.

Dice up two of the stems of the mushrooms really finely, then combine the stems, half a jalapeno, some garlic, green onions, bell pepper, pepperoni, parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, and a little sugar. The mayo really helps improve the creaminess alongside the cream cheese, and the other flavors work really well together to make the perfect stuffing for the mushroom caps. You could also add in some Italian sausage, or you could ditch the pepperoni and make this dish totally meatless. It’s really easy to adapt to your own taste preferences.

Combine that mixture very thoroughly. You want it well combined so there is a little bit of every part of the mixture in each bite.

Pile each mushroom top with a good scoop of the mixture (about 1/5th of the mixture if you’re making 5 of them). Top with mozzarella cheese and additional parmesan, then bake. They’ll get nice and hot and bubbly and be the perfect dinner accompaniment.

Don’t these look absolutely divine? They’re perfect for pairing with pasta, but they’re hearty enough to make them as a standalone dinner for sure. Either way, they are a super close duplicate to the Zio’s hit, which is a pretty good thing, because my mother is missing it big time. Now if only I could find a duplicate for her favorite, Chicken Pomodoro, I’d be all set.

Have you ever had a favorite restaurant close?

Tell me all about it in the comments below! I’d love to hear your favorite dish there, too– maybe we can find a delicious copycat recipe together! Scroll down to find the full, printable version of this recipe below!

More Italian Inspiration

Pizza-Style Zucchini Roll-Ups
Pasta e Fagioli Soup (Olive Garden Copycat)
Twenty-Minute Stromboli (3 Ways!)
Chicken and Gnocchi Soup (Olive Garden Copycat)
Tiramisu Recipe from Pint Sized Baker
Essentials ofClassic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan on Amazon
The Italian Cookbook for Beginners Using Everyday Ingredients on Amazon

More Restaurant Copycats

Double-Dipped French Toast (IHOP Copycat)
Cracker Barrel Fried Apples in the Slow Cooker
Just-Like-Freddy’s Fry Sauce and Seasoning (As seen on the Freddy’s Steakburger’s Website!)
Copycat Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse Vanilla Creme from It Is a Keeper!

Loaded Italian Stuffed Mushrooms Recipe