Stuffed peppers vary greatly from region to region throughout the world. Spanish cuisine has a stuffed pepper version called pimientos rellenos. Usually piquillo peppers are used, and the fillings might include Manchego cheese, chicken, or cod in a red sauce, with chicken likely being the most popular recipe.
In India, their version of stuffed peppers consists of bell peppers stuffed with cooked meat, potatoes, and onions and seasoned with chili, turmeric, coriander, cilantro, salt, and lemon juice. The peppers are then either browned in a tava (frying pan) or baked in an oven until the peppers are scorched.
The North American version uses bell peppers stuffed with meat, rice and vegetables, and this is the version we will be making today.
Choice of peppers is an important one
Growing up, this dish was always made with boring green bell peppers. The taste of the green variety is bland much less sweet than other colored varieties. As a green pepper ripens, it turns yellow, orange and red during different stages of ripening.
I find the red variety to be the sweetest, but any of the three will work. Many times I will use some of each color to help make for a more pleasing presentation. Choose peppers that are shaped like a bowl. If the peppers become to long, they will not have the ability to stand in the oven.
Another favorite of mine are stuffed hot peppers (the long yellow ones). Frequently I will stuff of few of these for myself with any left over filling. Just remember to par boil these peppers as well.
Get the peppers ready for stuffing
Trim the top of the peppers as close to the top as you can. Save these trimmings as we will be adding them to the filling later. Stand the peppers cut side up and see if the will stand on their own. A little lean to one side is fine, but we don’t want to risk the peppers falling over while cooking or serving.
If a pepper is leaning just a little, you can trim the bottom ever slow slightly to make the base flat. Typically only require in very small slice, and care should be taken to not cut away too much of the bottom.
If you do get a small hole in bottom, it should be fine. You just want to avoid cutting away so much the base that the filling can fall out.
Next remove the core and ribs from inside the pepper. Add the peppers to boiling water and boil for about 5 minutes. This is called par boiling, and will partially cook them to the put they will soften before cooking in the oven.
In theory you can make stuffed peppers without this step, but you will need to lengthen the time in the oven. Also without boiling them partially, I find the peppers never really soften as much as I like them to.
Filling for stuffed peppers
This dish is stuffed peppers with rice, beef, Italian hot sausage, cheese, and vegetables. A little of the sauce is also added while mixing to help add moisture and flavor. The rice I use is boil in bag instant rice, and I boil it in the same pot as I boiled the peppers in. While you could make scratch rice, it will add another 30 minute step, and quite frankly will not change the flavor much or if at all.
After the mixture is prepared and has cooled, you will want to add salt and pepper to taste. The reason I exclude S&P from the recipe is that some tomato sauces you buy may already have a high salt content. Salt is one those ingredients that are difficult to take back when adding too much.
When you read the recipe you will notice that I do not use any binding agent in the filling. Things like eggs, breadcrumbs and cheese are common ways to bind most types of fillings. This method may appeal to some, but my goal is to make stuffed peppers with rice and meat, not peppers stuffed with meatloaf! In my experience the starch from the rice, and the parmesan hold it together just well enough to leave a perfect texture.
Topping our stuffed peppers
Once filled, the peppers are topped with more sauce, then capped with grated parmesan and freshly grated mozzarella. I avoid using the pre-shredded cheese sold in bags. The cheese in these bags has an anti-caking agent added to them that makes it hard for the cheese to melt as desired. The final step in the cooking process is a short broil on the “LO” broil setting, which helps brown the cheese slightly.
While this is optional, it helps improve the plated presentation. I leave the stuffed peppers with rice in the middle rack position, and turn the broiler to low. Stay at the oven and watch this step closely. Using a “HI” setting on the broiler, and/or not monitoring the cheese can ruin things rather quickly.
Final steps
After cooking and a short resting period, I serve the stuffed peppers, standing cheese side up, and with more sauce. Sauce can be served on the side or on top, it’s totally up to you.
For a side dish, mashed potatoes are my personal favorite. Find the link to my favorite mashed potatoes here. I like to pour some of the sauce on top of the potatoes as well to act like a gravy.
I hope you enjoy, and if you’ve made this recipe please fell free to leave a comment below!
