STUFFED PEPPERS!
Hello to all you beautiful people and HAPPY FRIDAY, or should I say happy fri-YAY! This week felt uber long for me and I cannot wait until tomorrow! I am thinking beach, sun, friends, booze…ya know the usual!
The one thing that remains constant throughout my week though is FOOD. Shocking, I know…I eat. Food is something that I never think twice about. I never worry about the cost (even if it is pricey, I mean a girl’s gotta eat), always look for the best ingredients and genuinely like to recipe test and try new things.
On Monday I made some delicious Goan Style Shrimp Curry which lasted for 2 days. I love to cook food that yields extra. It is an easy way to keep your food on track for the week. I usually, keyword usually cook healthy throughout the week. By making a healthy meal and then making extra to last you a few days, you can be sure to keep the junk to a minimum. The weekends are for splurging!
The shrimp curry was light, easy to make and gave us even yummier leftovers. I wanted to keep up with the trend for my Wednesday night dinner. Over the weekend I watched Master Chef, LOVE that show, and the contestants had to make sausages from scratch. They chose the meat, percentage of fat, seasonings, then grind-ed (can I get a word check over here?) and cased the sausages. I was definitely inspired by their challenge! The only issue…I don’t have a sausage grinder or a stuffer. My solution? Store bought sausages! Thank you VONS!
After I bought the sausages I began to brainstorm and play out recipes in my heads. Not to toot my own horn, well, ok, “toot, toot,” I make the best sausage, peppers and onions in a red wine sauce with homemade marinara. My mouth is salivating thinking about it! WOAH. Got majorly distracted there! ANYWAYS…I make those sausages every few months or so and wanted to make something different. After crossing jambalaya off my list (we had rice with the curry) and pasta (looking to something carb free) I decided on stuffed peppers. The last time I made stuffed peppers they didn’t turn out well. The bell pepper was still raw after cooking and it made the dish a little less enjoyable. This time I decided to use a different pepper and stuff it with all kinds of goodness.
I made a few Google searches for more inspiration and found a recipe from Delish.com. I loved the base of the dish but made a few tweaks and added some KOMAL into the dish. The original recipe called for Cubanelles, a small sweet Italian Pepper. They are had to come by if you don’t live in Europe or near the Caribbean, so I settled for Anaheim Chili Peppers; slightly hotter, but small and easy to fry.
In addition to the other ingredients in the original recipe, I added freshly minced garlic, red chili flakes, subbed the pork sausage for turkey (see, I told you, healthy!), subbed the white bread for sourdough, used homemade marinara instead of store bought tomato sauce and the kicker…wait for it…..fresh ricotta! The ricotta gave the dish a richer, creamier consistency.
Justin LOVED the filling. The peppers on the other hand, he wasn’t too thrilled about…but hey, you win some, ya lose some.
Has anybody tried this recipe before? Used Italian frying peppers? SO curious and would love to hear your feedback. Leave us a comment below with your ideas and enjoy your FRI-YAY!
- 1 bag baby spinach
- 2 slices sourdough (or white bread)
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 egg
- 4 tsp. grated parmesan
- 2 tsp. pine nuts
- 4 cloves of garlic minced
- ¼ cup ricotta
- ½ red onion minced
- 1lb hot Italian turkey sausage (or your preference)
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
- Red chili flakes to taste
- 8 Anaheim chili peppers (or peppers of your choice)
- Olive oil for frying
- 1 cup tomato/marinara sauce
- 1 cup chicken broth
- In a large skillet heat oil in pan to cover the bottom. When hot add minced garlic. Cook for 30 seconds, or until fragrant. Be careful not to let it burn. Add spinach and cook until wilted. About 1 minute. Drain excess liquid from spinach and then coarsely chop. Set aside.
- In a large bowl tear small pieces bread and add the milk egg and cheeses. Combine with fingers to make a paste. Knead in the pine nuts, onion, red chili flakes, salt, pepper, sausage and spinach. Mix until combined. Set aside.
- Slice the peppers down the middle. Deseed (or don’t! gives it an extra kick). Lightly stuff the peppers with the sausage mixture.
- Heat enough oil to fry in pan. Add the peppers, filling side down, and cook over high heat until well browned and slightly charred. About 5-6 minutes.
- Turn the peppers over and cook until the skins are browned and blisters. Another 5-6 minutes.
- Add the tomato sauce, reserving extra to serve on the side, and the chicken broth. Cover and let simmer for 5-6 minutes until the sausage filling is cooked through and the peppers are tender.
- Garnish with parsley and serve hot with extra marinara sauce on the side.
- Enjoy!
- A non-stick pan will work best with this recipe. It helps prevent the meat from sticking and burning.
