Pizza Potatoes over Sautéed Spinach (Secret Recipe Club)

Instructions

1. Scrub potatoes well and leave skin on. Pierce each potato once with a knife and weigh all potatoes. Microwave on high power (1100-watt oven) for 6-7 minutes per pound. (Your timing will depend on weight of potatoes you use.) Alternatively, you may bake the potatoes in a conventional oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
2. While potatoes are cooking, prepare the filling. In a 12-inch skillet, heat olive oil. Sauté onion and bell pepper for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add mushrooms, Italian seasoning, fennel, salt and crushed red pepper and sauté for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Add garlic and sauté for another minute. Remove from heat and scrape vegetables into a mixing bowl. Don’t wash the skillet, but leave it for the final spinach step in this recipe.
4. When potatoes are done, remove from the oven, wrap them in a tea towel together and allow to steam for 10 minutes. Remove from the towel and cut each potato in half vertically. With a spoon or tiny cookie scoop, carefully scoop out the potato innards into the bowl with the vegetables; make sure you leave enough potato attached to the skin so the shells stay intact.
5. Add ½ cup marinara sauce to the vegetables in the bowl, and stir to combine the vegetables, potato innards and marinara. Using a spoon, scoop the mixture and spoon it back into the empty potato shells.
6. Spoon remaining marinara sauce over the 8 now-stuffed potato halves, and top each with a pinch of shredded mozzarella. Place them back into the microwave and cook just long enough to heat through and melt the cheese. This may take only 20-30 seconds or so per potato, depending on how much they cooled off during preparation.
7. Meanwhile, make the spinach bed. Reheat the skillet that you cooked the vegetables in (no need to wash it), and add the spinach (no need for any oil). Sauté for 1-3 minutes, until spinach is wilted down. Add garlic during the last minute. Using a tongs, place spinach in wide, flat bowls or plates, and spread it as a bed. Place one or two stuffed potato halves on each bed of spinach and serve!
8. Offer grated Parmesan at the table for anyone who would like a sprinkle.
9. Serves 4.