SAN DIEGO — Growing up, we had stuffed bell pepper and stuffed cabbage a lot. That's because my mother was a 1st generation American whose parents were immigrants from Poland in the 1920s. The family was sharecroppers in New York and they utilized what was on the farm for the dinner and traditional recipes. When my mom moved to San Diego, she took the stuffed cabbage recipe from her mother and used bell peppers for her twist.
Italian Stuffed Bell Peppers
- 4 - 6 red, Yellow, Red, or Orange Bell peppers (medium or smaller
- 1 lbs. ground beef 80% lean
- 1 1/2 cups cooked rice
- 1 cup diced Yellow onion
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 tsp. granulated onion
- 1/2 tsp. granulated garlic
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 1 tsp. Kosher salt
Topping
- 1 24 oz.jar of Pasta sauce
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Cook rice following instruction, fluff, and set aside to cool. Pre-heat oven to 400°, slice tops off bell peppers, clean out seeds and save tops.
Mix all the ingredients except the topping, stuff bell peppers with the mixture, you'll have to adjust the amount that goes into the peppers, this should fill 4 no problem. Place in a baking dish, top each pepper with a couple of tablespoons of pasta sauce and put the pepper top on top. Add 1 cup of water to the baking dish around the peppers and bake for 1 hour. If you like the Bell pepper more tender add 15 minutes.
Heat you pasta sauce when ready to serve, ladle the sauce over the top and finish with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
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