Many stuffed pepper recipes rely on rice as one of the ingredients, maybe to bulk out the recipe, maybe to absorb any excess liquid, but I have eaten my way though variations of stuffed peppers and stuffed tomatoes and have found them pretty unexciting. So, I decided to use a meat, tomato and mushroom sauce as the filling and spiced it up with some Tabasco sauce and I much preferred this recipe as a stuffing.
I cut the peppers in half and nestled them in aluminum foil so that when I filled them with the stuffing it couldn’t leak out as they cooked. Depending on appetites half a pepper stuffed maybe enough for one person served alongside a green salad or rice on the side.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F
2 or 4 red peppers (depending on appetites) – cut in half, de-veined and de-seeded
1 tbsp. olive oil seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 largish onion – finely chopped
2 large cloves of garlic – grated
1 pound of ground beef
1 tbsp. tomato puree
1 cup chopped tomatoes
Tabasco sauce (optional)
4 oz. baby bella mushrooms – chopped
Place seasoned oil in a cast iron casserole dish and when sizzling add onion and let soften and brown slightly before adding the garlic.
Let onion and garlic cook together for a couple of minutes, then add the ground beef and sear. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and cook for 5 minutes.
Nestle the red pepper halves in aluminum foil and place in an ovenproof dish. Fill the peppers with the meat mixture and cook in the oven for 30 minutes.
