The Cooking Corner: Stuffed Peppers

While out in Boston over super bowl weekend, my good friend Raina made some delicious stuffed red peppers. This recipe is a slight variation on hers and as you might be able to tell from the not so good picture, put together kind of haphazardly. BUT it tasted delicious and was a big hit with the hubby!

The only downside with this recipe is that there is a whole lot of chopping and dicing involved. I just bought one of these fancy little hand choppers. So, the next time I will be better prepared.

Thanks for the recipe Rai! 

Ingredients

• Hot and sweet sausage (I used 2 hot italians and 2 sweet turkey sausages)
• 1/2 pound of ground beef
• 4-5 peppers (I used 2 red, 1 yellow and 1 green for the hubby)
• 3 carrots
• 1 small sweet onion
• 1 small brown onion
• garlic (2 cloves)
• celery (I used about 4-5 stalks)
• 2-3 tomatoes
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 1/3 cup chicken broth
• fresh parsley
• pepper to taste
• Mozzarella, Romano and Parmesan cheese ( I used approximately two small handfuls of each)
• 1 jar of tomato sauce
• 3 cups quinoa (this is one of my variations, Raina's recipe included instant long grain wild rice...its all good)

Cook the quinoa according to the package directions. In a pan cook up the sausages (broken up sans skin) and ground beef, drain and set aside. Dice the garlic, onions, celery, and tomatoes. Shred the carrots,  Cut the tops off the peppers and chop up the any remainder from the tops. Chop up the parsley.

In a dutch oven or other largish pan of your choice cook up the garlic and onions. Let them cook for a bit then add the celery, carrots and peppers, stir and cook for a few minutes.  Add white wine and cook down a bit. You can add chicken broth as needed (depends on how watery you want mixture). Soften everything up then add tomatoes and meat. Stir everything together and cook for a few more minutes. Add quinoa and stir it all together. Then add all the cheese and parsley and stir. You can add pepper or salt to taste. Preheat oven to 425.

In a roasting pan or casserole dish large enough and deep enough to hold the peppers, add the tomato sauce. Stuff the peppers and place in the pan/dish (tops up). Add a little bit of the tomato sauce on top of the peppers, then sprinkle some extra cheese on top. Bake peppers at 425 for approximately 45 minutes to an hour.

Serve in a bowl so you can spread some of the extra sauce around. I served this with some artisan bread, perfect for dipping.