Recipe: Stuffed peppers with sausage

There are recipes that I've known since childhood - recipes that my grandmother and mother cooked for us. I've continued to cook these in the same fashion, only to find that at some point, they get slightly boring.  Not bad, because they're still tried and tested, a staple -- but just a tad uneventful...

That's where the various sites on the internet come to the rescue - recipes that change one or more of the ingredients and pouf, a whole new world opens up.  Add to this that I twist the recipe anyway, and the end result may be miles away from the original, family recipe I had in mind.

That's how this recipe started:  My family always made peppers stuffed with minced meat and a bit of rice.  Excellent staple, great eaten warm or cold, and definitely welcome to children!  But there was this little nudge that I should try a combination that would use all those ingredients I keep in my pantry... So, in the end, to cut a long story short, I only kept the main ingredient:  the pepper!!! Everything else was modified, but the end result was so good, I think I'll start cooking these a lot more often than my mother's!!!

Stuffed peppers with sausage

adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

5 red bell peppers, tops cut off, seeds removed

3 links of "Toulouse" sausage (lots of basil and garlic), cut in thick slices

1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup cooked each white and wild rice

400g can tomato sauce

200g mozzarella cheese, shredded 

3 tsp dried basil

400ml chicken or vegetable broth

1-2 potatoes, peeled and cut in quarters (optional)

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The main reason why I use red peppers in this recipe is because they are already soft and will become even softer while cooking - meaning there is no need to boil  and peel them, as with the green ones (If you prefer the green ones, you'll just have to include this extra step).

Preheat the oven at 180C.
In a large skillet, over medium heat, lightly brown the onion, garlic and sausage, until the sausage is no longer pink.  Remove from heat, stir in white and wild rice, mozarella, basil and salt/pepper according to taste.Place the peppers cut side up in a baking dish.  Here come the potatoes:  if you cannot get the peppers to "sit up", use potatoes to help the situation (this is how women dealt with problems back in the days...).
Fill the peppers with the sausage mix, drizzle a couple of tablespoons of the broth over each pepper, and pour the rest into the bottom dish. Cook until heated through, 25-30 minutes. Great for immediate consumption but even better, eat some, freeze the rest! One of my staples in the freezer, these peppers provide solutions for last-minute, desperate meal preparation!

This post is my entry into Weekend Cooking, a weekly event hosted by Beth Fish Reads.