stuffed peppers

Cooler weather means heartier meals. My daughter wasn't going to use the green peppers from her CSA box, so they were passed on to me. I also had the peppers that I purchased at the Union Square Greenmarket last week. What to do with those peppers? A pair of those became roasted peppers, which were delicious in place on red leaf lettuce on my sandwich the other day. The other two became stuffed peppers for supper last night.

My own mother use to fill raw peppers with raw chop meat that was seasoned with salt and pepper and had uncooked rice added as a binder, this made the cooked ground beef very firm.  My mother-in-law on the other hand, parboiled the peppers for 3-5 minutes. In a frying pan  she would place ground beef then added breadcrumbs, 1/2 can of tomato sauce and browned everything before filling the peppers.

I've taken her recipe and upgraded it a bit. I still parboil the peppers as outlined in her recipe. I purchased from Whole Foods "U.S.A.  animal welfare rated 90% Lean Ground Beef, raised with no antibiotics and no added hormones" for $3.99/lb.  The ground beef was on sale through through today. I browned some grated garlic in a pan, then added the ground beef to brown. I seasoned the beef with salt and pepper and then added fresh tomato sauce that I made from the heirloom tomatoes that my son brought me. Once the meat and peppers were done, they were stuffed, a little more fresh tomato sauce, then popped into a preheated 350° F oven to be heated through. A little white rice to accompany the stuffed pepper would round out the dish, or pieces of sperlonga bread from Whole Foods, $3 per loaf, is also great to soak up the tomato sauce. It was a wonderful meal on a cool, Saturday evening.