Description
These are the best stuffed peppers we’ve ever made! Adapted from a recipe at BonAppetit.com.
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 1 serrano pepper, finely chopped
- 1/2 C chopped walnuts
- 9 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 Tbsp fine-chopped parsley
- 1–1/2 tsp tomato paste
- 3/4 tsp ground cumin
- 3/4 tsp ground turmeric
- 3/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 3 oz dry white wine
- 1–1/2 tsp kosher salt, plus more
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 lb ground beef (20% fat)
- 1/2 lb ground pork
- 1–1/2 C cooked rice
- 1/2 C golden raisins
- 3 oz Parmesan, finely grated (about 3/4 cup), divided
- 6 medium bell peppers, any color
- 4 C tomato juice
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (177°C).
- In a heavy oven-proof frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion and the serrano pepper together until the onion is translucent and just starting to brown on some of the edges, up to 10–12 minutes.
- Add the finely chopped garlic as well as the parsley, and continue to cook until the smell of the garlic loses some of its hard edge and mellows somewhat—about 2 minutes.
- Add the raisins and chopped walnuts. Cook until the raisins appear plump and just start to pick up some color. Another 2 minutes or so.
- Add the cumin, paprika, and turmeric. Stir in and cook until they become very fragrant. About a minute.
- Add the tomato paste and cook another minute, stirring.
- Lower the heat to medium-low and add the wine. It will boil quickly. Cook until the wine is very reduced. (in our cast-iron pan, this took only a few moments).
- Remove this mixture from heat and give it a taste. Adjust with salt and black pepper. Move to a plate or pan off of heat to allow the mixture to cool somewhat. Set the frying pan aside, you’ll use it later.
- In a medium to large mixing bowl, gently combine the raw beef and pork.
- Add the rice and fold it together, then add 1/2 C of the parmesan and fold it in.
- Add the onion/nut/raisin mixture to the meat and mix it together until fairly homogenous. Try not to overmix.
- Prepare the peppers. If they don’t want to stand up straight, cut thin slices from the nubs on the bottoms of the peppers until they can stand without tipping over—but don’t cut so far into the pepper that you cut into the inside.
- Cut the tops off of the peppers and core out the seeds and membranes.
- Pack the peppers with the meat filling using a spoon. Go ahead and really fill it in, mounding it on top somewhat.
- Stand the peppers in the frying pan and pour the tomato juice into the pan as well.
- Top the peppers with the rest of the parm, not worrying if some falls into the tomato bath below. Season them with black pepper, as well.
- Cover the pan with aluminum foil and insert a ChefAlarm probe through the foil into your fattest pepper. Set the high-temp alarm for 160°F (71°C).
- Put the pan in the oven and bake for 1 hour (use the timer on your ChefAlarm to track the time.) After the hour is up, remove the foil and re-insert the probe into the largest pepper.
- Cook until the high-temp alarm sounds (about 30 minutes more). Verify the temperature with a Thermapen ONE.
- Serve immediately, or, for thicker sauce, remove the peppers from the pan and boil the sauce in the pan until it has reduced by about half.
