Stuffed Hungarian Peppers

It's Saturday as I write this, and I've spent most of the day prepping and cooking for my friend's birthday party tomorrow. As dinnertime approached, I started thinking about the six Hungarian peppers that I harvested from the birthday boy's (and his wife's) garden last weekend.

A local favorite is stuffed Hungarian peppers, especially this time of year when peppers are plentiful. Usually, the local cooks stuff the peppers with Italian sausage and fry them up. Sometimes, they're stuffed with cheese and topped with a simple tomato sauce. I enjoy them that way, but today, I want something different.

[This babble continues....]


After searching online for a while, I found some interesting alternatives. One of them was on the GroupRecipes website, posted by "Possumqueen":   http://www.grouprecipes.com/30692/cheese-stuffed-hungarian-peppers.html  It's basically a meatless lasagna filling stuffed into a pepper.

This idea of using lasagna filling for stuffed peppers inspired me to create the following recipe, which is baking in the oven right now. (Smells awesome!) When thinking about quantities, I used this formula: 1/3 of a sausage per pepper, an equal part of ricotta cheese ... and the rest I eye-balled as I was standing over the mixing bowl. 

Ricotta & Sausage Hungarians

Ingredient list

• 6 fresh Hungarian peppers (skin, seeds & placentas removed)
• 2 Italian sausages (castings removed, meat fried and crumbled); I use sausage that has no MSG, food colorings or nitrates. This is not because I'm allergic to MSG or anything else; I'm not. It's just because I don't think fresh sausage should have all those additives. If I were making the sausage myself, I certainly wouldn't add MSG or nitrates. And as for food coloring...well, yes, I might use food coloring. Purple, perhaps?
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 2 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese (cut into small cubes; or, if you are using an older mozz, you could grate it instead)
• 1/2 cup (divided between filling and topping) shredded pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese
• 1 garlic clove, crushed or finely minced
• 1/4 cup (about 6 leaves) fresh basil, cut into thin ribbons
• big pinch (1/4 tsp or so) dried thyme
• cracked black pepper, to taste
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• For garnish:  1 diced tomato and 1/4 basil leaves cut into thin ribbons

Method
 
To remove the skins from the peppers, I charred them over a gas flame, put them in a bowl and covered them with plastic wrap. Then I waited for them to cool down enough to handle.

Rubbing the outsides with my fingers, I was able to remove the thin (but tough) pepper skins easily. I shortened the stems by cutting them with kitchen shears, then slit the peppers up the sides with a paring knife. The idea here was to NOT cut the stem end off completely, which would allow the stuffing to ooze out during baking. Instead, I created "boats" with both ends intact.

 

 

A teaspoon is the perfect tool for scrapping out the seeds and connective tissue (placenta) inside the peppers.

Remove the 2 sausages from their castings and fry up the meat, breaking it apart as it browns. (The above photo shows 5 sausages because I decided to fry up whole package, freezing 3 sausages for future meals.)

Mix together in a bowl: crumbled cooked sausage, ricotta, mozzerella,1/4 cup pecorino romano, garlic, basil ribbons, thyme, black pepper, salt and egg.

Stuff the peppers with the sausage-cheese filling and put them in an oiled baking dish. Top with 1/4 cup pecorino romano.

Bake at 350 Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. (In spite of my efforts, some of the cheese and egg oozed into the bottom of the pan during baking, but nothing burnt, so I called it good.)

While the pan is still hot, garnish with the fresh diced tomato and basil leaves. I found that 2 stuffed peppers was plenty for a dinner serving. Add a side salad and maybe some garlic bread...

Seriously (she types, between bites) these stuffed peppers are ... nom!