Vegetables

Stuffed Peppers

Name: Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients: 5-6 sweet Italian sausage links removed from casings; 2 Tbs butter; 2 garlic cloves finely chopped; 2 stalks of celery finely chopped; 1 medium sweet onion finely chopped; 2 tsp crushed peperoncino; ¼ cup crushed tomato with basil; 1½ cups (approximate) cooked rice; 20 oz additional crushed tomato ( approximate); 4-5 Tbs Parmesan cheese; salt and pepper to taste; ¼-½ cup grated cheese of choice for topping

I often use stuffed peppers as a way of using up an abundance of left over rice. This time however I had peppers that were going to need some attention soon, so I cooked extra rice to use. I usually incorporate chopped meat to the mix, however as Robbie Burns said "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley" and I found I didn't have any chopped meat available. So for this recipe I used sweet Italian sausage and it came out great

Directions

Begin with the peppers.
Bring water to boil in a large stock pot.
Take the peppers and cut the tops off as high as possible on the pepper, carefully remove the seeds and white ribs from the inside.
If the peppers are too tippy cut a very little slice from the bottom so they sit upright.
Place the peppers into the boiling water and blanch for about two minutes.
If all the peppers can't be submerged at once, boil in batches.
Once blanched remove from the water to a colander to drain and cool.
In a sauté pan that is not non-stick begin to cook the celery and onion and garlic until softened.
Add the sausage and cook breaking up the sausage with a fork or knife until you have very small pieces of sausage that are almost completely cooked.
Add the ¼ cup of crushed tomato and the pepper flakes and cook for a few more minutes.
In a separate bowl place the rice and stir to break up any clumps.
Add the cooked sausage mixture combine and then begin to add additional crushed tomato until you have a moist well combined mixture.
Add the Parmesan.
Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Fill the peppers with the stuffing and place in a baking dish.
Cover with aluminum foil.
Preheat oven to 375°.
Bake in the center of the oven covered for about 30 minutes.
Remove the foil and sprinkle grated cheese of your choice over the top of each pepper, you can use Parmesan, Mozzerella, Provolone, Asiago or what ever you feel will go .
Bake an additional 15- 30 minutes until the cheese is melted, the peppers are soft, and the stuffing is hot.
Serve as is or with sour cream or creme fraiche on the side.