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Sometimes I make a dinner that is a home run out of the park. Saturday night I made stuffed peppers. I had enough meat mixture leftover to also stuff mushroom caps and zucchini boats. But my favorite are the stuffed peppers. The meal was made Italian style, which is my favorite way to prepare anything. After all! I grew up in New Jersey! But John said he would have preferred them with cheddar cheese and more of a Spanish-rice twist to it. I guess I’ll make that for him someday, but, this recipe was perfection. Click on the link below to see the before shot:
Stuffed peppers, mushrooms and zucchini ready for the oven. W… on Twitpic.
Key to the success to this recipe is not browning anything. Mince the onion fine enough that it cooks well as part of the meatball. Same goes for the vegetables that you gut. Mince those bits up and throw them in the meat mix! I put a cup of raw rice in with a pound of Italian turkey sausage with its casing removed and a pound of ground turkey. I could have put another cup of rice in there. Click on the link below to see the after shot:
Baked! Stuffed peppers, mushrooms, zucchini! on Twitpic.
Anyway, it was wonderful. If you’d like to give it a shot, here’s the recipe.
Stuffed Peppers
Stuffed Peppers
1 pound ground turkey.
1 pound Italian turkey sausage, casing removed.
1 cup uncooked rice.
1 egg.
1/2 cup minced onion.
Whatever flesh you scoop from vegetables, chopped.
Generous amounts of Italian herbs, Italian flat-leaf parsley, salt and pepper.
1 tablespoon chili pepper flakes.
Shredded Romano.
Fresh mozzarella.
Tomato sauce.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mash first eight ingredients together in a bowl. Wash your hands, let the meat mix meld. Cut peppers in half, top to bottom, removing stem, seeds and membrane (so you’re essentially making two servings out of each pepper).
Pour a little tomato sauce (I used a leftover meat (turkey) and mushroom sauce in bottom of pot or casserole dish. Generously stuff peppers, mushroom caps, zucchini boats (cut lengthwise in half, then scoop hulls out, so there is flesh holding the stuffing in. Make meatballs with remaining mixture. Eggplant would work. I use this mixture for stuffed cabbage, too. Arrange stuffed vegetables and meatballs in sauce; they can crowd each other.
Top with sauce, a little on each, fill gaps. Sprinkle copious amounts of cheese of your choice. Last night I topped each item with half a mini mozzarella ball.
Bake, covered for an hour. Uncover, let cheese brown for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven, let rest about 15 minutes. Lots of sauce, so you could serve it with pasta.
Mangia!
