Old dogs, new tricks

Every food culture in the world seems to have a version of stuffed peppers. The Mexicans stuff poblanos and the Thai stuff their hot chilies.  The Indian versions are often filled with potatoes instead of meat and seasoned with complex spices.  The Chinese use shrimp or fish mixed with rice for the stuffing.  Other spiced versions are popular in the Middle East. The Hungarians and Italians love them.  The Sicilians are crazy for them! The old folks there have a slang name that John likes to use (something like bibadetti?) that I can never remember or pronounce correctly.

The Germans?  I'm not so sure...

I think my mom made stuffed peppers, or maybe I'm remembering stuffed cabbage leaves.  But if she did, they would have been green.  Growing up, I don't remember eating a bell pepper that wasn't green. When red ones finally appeared in the grocery store, they were several times more expensive.  Now we can buy beautiful big red peppers for a dollar or less, and they taste so much better-- less harsh and raw. And they don't "stay with you" in the same way.

John gets pretty excited when I make this dinner.  I have the perfect size Le Creuset casserole for three stuffed peppers.  One each for supper, and the third for his lunch the next day.  The filling varies-- this time I used leftover saffron rice and a little hot Italian sausage. A touch of cheese to bind it together.  A sprinkle of breadcrumbs and paprika on top.

For some reason, I always par-boiled the pepper shells before filling them.  An extra, messy step. Why?  Maybe I saw my mom do it--  you cannot "stuff" a crispy leaf of cabbage.

It turns out this was unnecessary all along, because the raw, filled peppers cooked beautifully in the covered casserole.  I took the lid off for 15 minutes at the end so the cheesy tops would brown, and we had a satisfying (almost) vegetarian dinner.