Italian Stuffed Peppers Granny Would Have loved! These Italian style stuffed peppers are full of Italian sausage, spinach, cheese, rice and lots of flavor! Excellent as a make ahead meal or make a double batch and have a pan of these stuffed peppers waiting in the freezer!
I think its about time I got down to some grandma food. It’s everyone’s favorite anyway. All grandma food has similar qualities; it’s comforting, it’s filling, and there are probably some cooked greens hiding in there somewhere. Grandma cooked like everyone was working 15 hour days on the farm, with no care for calories or the amount of butter a dish may contain. And that’s all we really want anyway, right?
The real reason I am embracing the warmth and comfort of good, home cooking, is that today I marched a little closer to granny-dom. At the ripe old age of 35, my first scraggly, shiny grey hair has poked its way through. I’ve had a few false alarms before. A few shiny strands have caught my eye in the past only to be revealed as a stray blonde hair after a day in the garden. But I began to notice a couple of months ago that the creases at the corners of my eyes don’t fade away when I stop smiling and I’m pulling out enough stray chin hairs at this point that I could knit a damn sweater. My knees creak and my joints pop and the girls hang a little lower these days. It was inevitable really, the gray hair came through like the nail in the coffin.
I can hear someone out there yelling at me right now, “I was totally grey at 25!” or some such thing. Or the inevitable person who is older than me saying, “Ha! Just wait!” So, y’all can keep that one to yourselves. No need to repeat yourself.
The point is that, that one scraggly grey hair and the deepening creases of my eyes are just fair warnings. I’m running out of time to make any really big life decisions; to change the direction of my path should I want to and to be able to do it while my butt still looks good in these jeans. So, I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately. I haven’t actually come up with anything definite yet though. So, I made these peppers, because grey hairs also mean that I am getting older and it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to my old-lady perm and purple, shoulder-padded pantsuit. Just like my granny wore. And she would have loved these peppers.
Ingredients
- 7 red bell peppers
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 3 italian sausages casings removed
- 2 cups fresh bread crumbs
- 1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
- 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes drained
- 3 T parmesan
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
- 10 oz package frozen spinach thawed and drained
- 1 oz – 14 . jar pizza sauce
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Halve 6 peppers and scoop out the seeds and membrane. Blanch the peppers in the boiling water for 3-5 minutes. Remove to a baking dish. Set aside.
- Finely chop the remaining pepper. Then, heat the oil in a large skillet and brown the sausage, remaining bell pepper, onion and garlic. Remove the mixture to a large bowl. Stir together the remaining ingredients, except the pizza sauce. Fill each pepper half with the filling mixture. If you have leftover filling, place it in between the peppers in a glorified pile on the pan. Cover each pepper with a spoonful of pizza sauce and a sprinkle of cheese.
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until mixture is hot all the way through.
- Tip: This is a great make-ahead freezer meal!
Nutrition
Oh my gosh, these look so delicious! I’d love these so much.
I got grey hairs at 19 :/
If I take out the sausage this would be a great vegetarian starter for a dinner party!
Yes! Absolutely! They wouldn’t even miss it. Great suggestion! Thanks
Such a fun and quick recipe. I would substitute the bell pepper. For some reason I can’t stand to chew it or the onions. I’m weird, I know!!!
My kids don’t eat the pepper either. 🙂 I think this would be good as stuffed zucchini or squash instead of the peppers. And you could grate the onion so you get all of the flavor without all of the chew.
I bet these are fairly low carb, too! Love me anything with moz cheese, omg.
You could probably sub the rice for quinoa or some such thing and really cut the carbs down. Great suggestion! Thanks!
That looks scrumptious. I have never eaten a bell pepper whole but that looks soo good I might have to try your recipe. Thanks for sharing.
They are excellent vessels for delicious fillings! Thanks for stopping by!
First of all, this recipe looks great. Stuffed peppers are one of my favorite dishes! Second of all, I had the same experience a few weeks ago. I chopped off that one single strand (and maybe a few other black ones that didn’t want to part ways with the gray one). But, naturally, it grew back. I’ve learned to accept the fact that I’m aging. Getting wiser, I suppose. 😉
Yes, wiser. I’m going to go with wiser. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
These look scrumptious! It’s been a while since I’ve made stuffed peppers. I should put this on the dinner menu this week. Oh! And so sorry about the gray hair that showed up. C’est la vie!
i dont know why my friends doesn’t like bell pappers. If only they could know how much nutrients they could get and how good it is in digestion.
You don’t have to use peppers. You could stuff zucchini instead! Thanks for stopping by!
Oooo this is cool! I don’t think I’ve ever come across Italian stuffed pepper recipes before! This looks delicious and perfect to serve when I have guests over! I will have to give it try! Thank you for sharing!
~Crissy
http://www.whimsicalfawn.com
They are super delicious! Thanks for swinging by!
Thanks for the recipe. Italian stuffed peppers look really delicious.
http://www.learn2livefully.com
These look and sound delicious!!! Would be perfect for dinner tonight! It’s snowing again here
And I’m in the mood for comfort food!!!
This looks like a great recipe. I had amazing stuffed bell peppers as a child and I’d love to try this out sometime.
You totally should! My kids love these peppers. They don’t actually eat the peppers but they love the filling. Thanks for stopping by!
This looks so good. I love peppers, even the hot ones 😉
When making the night before and then putting in the fridge overnight, how long do I put it in the oven the next day for and at what temp?
Hi Edward!
From the fridge to oven these peppers should only take an extra 10-15 minutes. That will vary depending on the size of the peppers. The oven temp is the same 350 degrees. Thanks for stopping in!