stuffed peppers

Hmmmm....I have one, but I don't have a specific set of measurements, so I'm not sure it will 'translate' well on screen I will make up some measurements for you.....this is what I have to do b/c my Italian family cooks by 'eye-balling' everything! Makes for bad recipe sharing! I taught Michele how to make these by showing her, rather than writing the recipe down!

Basically, this recipe is to stuff 3-4 large green bell peppers. Cut each pepper in half long ways and lie them in a baking pan, cut side up.

In a large bowl, mix 1 to 1 and 1/2 cups of seasoned bread crumbs, one can of black pitted olives (large or jumbo olives, finely chopped), 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, and 2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped and seeded. Salt and pepper to taste.

Fill the pepper halves with stuffing, and drizzle lightly with EVOO. Add about 1/4 cup of water to the bottom of the pan, and cover with foil.
Bake in a 350 degree oven until peppers are cooked and tender, but still slightly firm.

I'm afraid I'm in the category of 'eye-balling' too .. but here's my version:

First .. when selecting your peppers .. try to find peppers that are square in shape, and have even bottoms that they can stand up on. If you end up with peppers that are tall, you may want to increase the amount of beef, onion, mushrooms to give you more 'stuffing' mixture.

4 peppers (whichever color you prefer)
1 lb. ground sirloin
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 large mushrooms, finely chopped
1 can diced tomatoes (salt free, preferred)
pepper (as in salt & pepper)
ketchup
sour cream
mustard

Prepare your peppers for stuffing. Cut the top off of the pepper, and remove the core .. you want to make a bucket out of the peppers. Wash both inside and out .. I don't like to leave any pepper seeds inside, and I try to clean out all of the core and remnants along the sides. Dry and set aside.

In a skillet, saute the onion and mushroom in a little butter, then add beef and brown. Add pepper to your preference (not a fan of adding salt to my food .. but feel free). Keep the heat high so the grease cooks away, but remember to constantly stir so you don't burn what your cooking. When the beef is cooked through, turn down the heat to medium-low.

Drain the liquid from the diced tomatoes, and stir in the tomatoes to the skillet. Squeeze in lots of ketchup over the entire mixture in the skillet .. I usually just keep zig-zagging back-and-forth so it is well-coated, then add a heaping tablespoon of sour cream, and a teaspoon of mustard. Mix well so it all blends together. Taste. You can always add more ketchup as preferred.

Preheat the oven to bake at 325.

Spoon the mixture into each of the peppers .. you can always compress the mixture down to get more filling inside.

Bake for 10-15 minutes.

As a skillet meal, instead of actually stuffing the peppers .. try dicing up the peppers, and adding it to your mixture in the skillet. You may want to increase the amount of ketchup, and maybe even the sour cream and mustard .. but be sure to add the peppers last, mixing well to get them coated with the sauce and cook them briefly so they don't become too soft.

Here's how I make mine!

Wash, slice the tops off and clean out a couple of green bell peppers (like above, try to find flat bottomed ones that will stand on their own).

Drop the peppers into boiling water for about 5 minutes-until just slightly tender.

Brown a pound of ground beef with a little chopped onion in a skillet. Drain off excess fat. Stir in a minced clove of garlic, a cup of COOKED instant rice, a cup of tomato sauce (canned is fine). Heat through.

Stuff mixture into peppers. Stand them upright in an ungreased baking dish and pour some tomato sauce over. If you like, you can top with some shredded mozzerella cheese.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes.

A pound of ground beef and 1 cup of cooked rice should fill 4 large peppers...

I have one that is stuffed with rice, ground beef and some other stuff. If you are interested let me know and I will scann it for you tonight.

I do a bread-stuffing pepper. I don't have an exact recipe but it goes something like this.

Buy Italian Peppers - they are LONG peppers sold in most fruit stores/supermarkets. They're not hot, just longer than a bell pepper.
Cut tops of peppers off and clean out the inside.

In a bowl:
Crumble white bread or italian bread into small pieces
Add 2-3 cloves of garlic minced
Add salt, pepper, parsley
Add milk to make the mixture wet.
Add pinoli nuts
Stuff peppers with mixture

Lay peppers in glass baking dish
Drizzle olive oil over the peppers
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes
Broil for a few minutes on high to get tops brown

The one's with chopped meat can definitely be used as the main meal - I would add a salad and maybe a side dish of veggies too.

The bread stuffing one I use as a side dish for meats, most people would eat a half of stuffed pepper I think then.

Claud's stuffed peppers are one of my favs

My grandma always made a meat and rice pepper in a tomato sauce. I don't have any measurements since she never wrote anything down.