These stuffed mushrooms are rich in flavor and make a delicious appetizer. Just don't eat too many because they are so filling that you might not have room for dinner! They take a little time to make - but that's why they taste so good! They're filled with spicy sausage, cream cheese and several other delicious ingredients. See the next step for full list of ingredients and to get started!

Step 1: Ingredients for Spicy Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients - 10-15 servings

4 packages of medium-sized mushrooms
12 ounces of mild (or spicy) Italian sausage
1 cup cream cheese
1 cup pasta sauce
1 cup of cooked white rice
1green pepper
1 tomato
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
bunch of fresh basil

Step 2: Preparing the Mushroom Caps

There are a few things you need to do to start. First, if you don't have a cup of white rice made - that should be made first. If you have a rice maker, just put in a cup of rice and 1 3/4 cup of water and let it do the work for you. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees now.

Now it's time to prepare the mushrooms and remove the stems.

First, wash your mushrooms to remove any dirt or impurities. Then, pull on the stems gently to remove them. They should just pop right out. If there isn't much of a well or space after it's removed, you can use a spoon to scoop some of it out to form a bigger space where you'll later put the filling. When you're removing the stems - set them aside onto a cutting board or into a bowl.

Once removed, then chop the stems into little pieces. Or, you can put them into a food processor blender to chop them up for you. Set aside.

Step 3: Cooking the Meat for Stuffed Mushrooms

At this point, take out your green pepper, garlic, tomato and red wine vinegar. I roughly chopped the pepper, garlic and tomato into large chunks and put them in my blender with 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar and blended it into little pieces. My son isn't fond of chunks of peppers or tomatoes - so I chopped them quite finely. Set aside briefly.

Now turn on the stove to medium and add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to the skillet and add the sausage. Once the sausage is cooked through, then add the pepper, garlic, tomato and red wine vinegar to it and mix. Turn the heat down slightly and add one cup of the chopped mushroom stems and mix.

As that is cooking, take out a pan or cooking dish for your mushrooms. I used a large glass rectangular pyrex dish. Add a little olive oil to the bottom of the dish and place mushrooms on it to prepare for cooking. If you have some Italian Seasoning, sprinkle some of that in each mushroom cap. I also used some nonstick olive oil spray on each cap before sprinkling in the Italian Seasoning. (The McCormick Italian Herb Seasoning Grinder is incredible - my favorite).

Now put the mushrooms caps in the oven (without their filling) for about 10 minutes. This is just a pre-cook to get them to soften up so it won't take as long later once they're filled with the wonderful meat mixture.

Step 4: Finishing Up

Now return to check on the meat and give it a little taste. If you want these to be spicy, you could add some cayenne pepper at this point (that's what I did). I also noticed it could use some more garlic and regular black pepper and added some of both to the mix. If you wish, you can also add another 1/2 cup of mushroom caps if needed. You should have a bunch left over even after adding more.

Now take out your fresh basil and wash it and chop it up. The meat at this point will be a bit dry. It should now be time to add 1 cup of pasta sauce. Right after adding the pasta sauce you should stir in the fresh basil and remove the meat from the heat. Lastly, mix in your 1 cup of rice as well as 1 cup of cream cheese and 1/2 cup of bread crumbs. The cream cheese will melt and blend together with the rest of the ingredients as you mix them up.

That's it - you're finally done with your mushroom masterpiece mix! Finally once the 10 minutes are up from the pre-cooking of the mushrooms you can pull them out.

Lastly, fill up those mushroom caps with the delicious filling (don't be stingy with it - really fill them up and over) and top them off with some more bread crumbs. The texture and taste really balances everything out. You're done! Please enjoy them - as they are highly addictive and worth all the little steps you took to make them!

Now return them to the oven and let them cook. If they've been pre-cooked, then for medium-sized mushrooms it should take about 20 minutes more to finishing cooking. Large mushrooms would take about 30-35 minutes.