So there I was last night, sitting in the hospital with all the other fine citizens of Torn who had found themselves torn up, when I found myself in a discussion about dinner and what I was making.

One of the other patients opined that a pizza was superior to my intended meat-and-vegetables concoction, but someone else noted that it could be used for stuffing mushrooms - which made me remember a recipe that I like to do on occasion.

 

Stuffed Peppers

What you'll need:

- several large bell peppers

- ground meat [beef, usually, but I like it with half beef and half pork]

- seasonings [ at least salt and pepper; I like it with some garlic, tarragon, parsley and basil ]

- tomato sauce [ out of the bottle is fine; this isn't haute cuisine ]

- cheese [ something like a shredded mozzarella ]

- oil [ olive is nice, but this is mostly just to make sure things don't stick, so it largely doesn't matter if it's olive, canola, avacado, or whatever cooking oil ]

- A baking dish - like, a pie pan is OK, or a small casserole dish

- A large bowl for mixing

- A small sharp knife - a paring knife is ideal

- tinfoil

- An oven - set it to 350° F or 176° C and let it heat up while you're making the rest.

How you make it:

With a small, sharp knife - a paring knife if you have one - carefully cut around the top of the peppers so you can extract the 'core' - the bit with the seeds - while leaving the pepper largely intact otherwise. Get those seeds out; they're nasty and bitter.

Take your ground meat and put it in a large bowl. Add your seasonings - enough to lightly cover the top with whatever you're using. Then get your hands in there and mix it up well [ wear gloves if you're squeamish ].

Take one of your peppers in one hand, and pull out a bit of meat, and pack it gently into the bottom. You will want to fill it -about- 2/3 full; a little more or less won't matter. This is comfort food, not some restaurant.

Repeat this with your other peppers, and put them in the baking dish. Cover them with tinfoil. Put this in the oven for...oh, say 20 minutes, then check on them. If the meat's gotten brown, then it's time for the next step.

Carefully pour [use a spoon maybe] tomato sauce into the peppers until it's almost at the top. Sprinkle some cheese on top. Then put this back in the oven for another 10 or 15 minutes, until the cheese is all melted and everything starts looking really nice.

Go ahead and serve this; I usually just pop 'em in a bowl and go to town.

Variants:

If you want, you can mix some cooked rice into the meat when you are preparing it. This changes the texture a bit and sometimes a change is nice.

You can also use chili powder in your meat, so you have chili-stuffed peppers.

Try a little hot sauce in your tomato sauce - it can liven things up.

 

Above all, have fun!