Stuffed Peppers
Serves: 6–8 | Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: About 1 Hour | Total Time: 1 Hour and 10 Minutes
photo by Natalie Spencer
As summer comes to an end and the kids go back to school, many vegetables make their debut at farmers’ markets. This is the time of the season when local vendors share their bountiful harvests all across Northeast Ohio. These stuffed peppers are perfect for using up those veggies you couldn’t help but buy from the market a few days ago. The ingredients are easily interchangeable to satisfy everyone. Have a vegetarian in the family? This recipe is just as good without the sausage! Serve these hot, room temp or cold, so long as they are enjoyed outside while soaking up the last little bit of Ohio’s summer.
Ingredients
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 100ml olive oil plus extra for drizzling
- 6 long peppers
- 1 small eggplant, peeled and chopped into small cubes
- 1/2 cup plum tomatoes, cubed
- 1 tbsp capers, chopped
- 1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage
- 1/4 cup pecorino
- 1/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
- 100ml tomato passata
Instructions
1. Cook Italian sausage in a frying pan. Once cooked, remove from pan and set aside. Do not clean the pan.
2. While sausage is cooking, prepare your vegetables. Peel and chop the eggplant. Chop the onion, garlic, tomatoes, capers and one of the peppers.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
4. Over medium heat, drizzle some olive oil in the same pan used to cook the sausage. Add the onion and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes or until onion has softened.
5. Add the pepper and eggplant. Cook for about 10 minutes or until eggplant has softened, stirring every two minutes or so.
6. Add tomatoes and capers. Use the moisture from the tomatoes to scrape up the burnt layer on the pan left from the sausage.
7. Add a sprinkle of pecorino. Stir and continue to cook until all of the vegetables look nice and soft.
8. Add the sausage back into the pan with the vegetables. Pour a little of the tomato passata into the pan to help combine all ingredients. Sprinkle a spoonful of breadcrumbs into the pan and stir. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
9. Cut the other five peppers in half long ways.
10. Pour a layer of the tomato passata into the bottom of a baking dish.
11. Place peppers in bottom of dish, cut side facing up.
12. Spoon the vegetable/sausage mixture into the peppers.
13. Sprinkle each pepper with breadcrumbs and more pecorino. Drizzle with olive oil.
14. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Check halfway that the sauce in the bottom of the dish has not dried up. If it has, add some warm water to the bottom of the dish.
15. Serve hot, room temperature or cold.
