Sausage & Rice Stuffed Peppers

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This starter course serves 8.
Sausage and Rice Stuffed Pepers

View the stuffed peppers cooking video on Instagram.

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tbsp. grapeseed oil
  • 8 oz. hot Italian sausage, uncased
  • ½ medium yellow onion, diced small
  • 5 garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 1 oz. salted capers, soaked, drained, and chopped
  • 10 anchovy filets
  • 2 ripe Roma tomatoes, diced small
  • ¼ cup white wine
  • 1 oz. basil leaves, roughly chopped
  • 1 ¼-1 ½ lbs. par cooked risotto rice
  • ½ lb. low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella, cut into 1/4″ cubes
  • 3 oz. parmesan, grated and separated into 2 oz. and 1 oz. amounts
  • 8 prunes
  • 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 medium to large bell peppers, halved and de-seeded

Preparation:

  1. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan on medium heat.
  2. Add the hot Italian sausage. Cook the sausage, while smashing with a wooden spoon to break apart, about 4-5 minutes. Remove the sausage from the pan, leaving all the fat behind.
  3. With the pan on medium heat, add the onion, garlic, and salt to the residual sausage fat in the sauté pan. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until translucent, then add the chopped capers, anchovy, and tomato.
  4. Cook for another 3-5 minutes on medium heat, while stirring frequently. The tomato will begin to stick to the bottom of the pan.
  5. Deglaze the pan with white wine. Scrape up the tomato stuck to the bottom of the pan. Cook the mixture for another 2 minutes, then stir in the basil. Cool the mixture.
  6. In a large mixing bowl, mix the par-cooked rice, cooked sausage, and cooled tomato mixture.
  7. Mix in the cubed mozzarella and first measurement (2 oz.) of parmesan cheese.
  8. Add 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil to a large casserole or roasting pan. Place the halved peppers into the dish, cut side up.
  9. Fill each pepper with rice and sausage filling. Insert 1 prune in the middle of each filled pepper.
  10. Top each pepper with the remaining Parmesan cheese (1 oz).
  11. Cover the casserole dish with foil and bake at 350F for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, remove the cover and continue cooking for another 20-25 minutes or until the peppers are tender and the tops are golden brown.
  12. Remove from the oven and cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. These peppers can be prepared a day ahead and re-warmed.

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