This is an easy and flavoursome dish. Either use small round peppers and keep the top with the stems as covers, or regular peppers and halve them lengthwise. Serve them with rice, couscous or as we do in Italy with vegetables and bread. They freeze well.
Serves: 4 as a main course
Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking: 1 hour 15 minutes
Ingredients
● 2 eggs
● ½ tsp cinnamon
● ½ tsp nutmeg
● 400g minced beef/lamb or a mix of both
● 4 tbsp breadcrumbs
● 8 tbsp water
● 4 yellow/orange/red/green bell peppers
● 700 ml passata
● Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
● 50ml extra-virgin olive oil, plus some to drizzle on top
● 5-6 leaves fresh basil
Method
● Preheat the oven to 190°C.
● Beat the eggs with the cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Then add the minced meat and mix it in. Finally, wet the breadcrumbs with the water, add it to the meat and mix it well. If you have a food processor, use it to mix all the ingredients.
● If using small peppers cut the top off to create a cover with the stem and remove the seeds. For larger peppers, halve them lengthways and discard the stems and seeds. Place the peppers in an oven dish - upright if whole or on their sides if halved. Keep the "lids" with stems aside for later if using any.
● Stuff each pepper with the meat mixture, distributing the quantity evenly. If there is extra meat, use it to make small meatballs to place around the peppers.
● Mix the passata with a little salt, pepper and the olive oil. Pour it around and on top of the peppers, sprinkle the basil, and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
● Cover the baking tray with foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil, add the pepper "lids" if using whole peppers, gently stir the tomato sauce and return to the oven, uncovered, for at least another 40-45 minutes or until the peppers are tender and the sauce has reduced.
● Serve hot.
