Sausage & Cheese Stuffed Peppers in Tomato Sauce

I have a freezer full of peppers but I couldn't resist a couple of big fat red beauties from the half-price table. I had some really still quite good mushrooms from the half-price table ditto, some lovely smoked sausage from a local farmer, and cheese curds from our trip to Ottawa last weekend. This is how it all ended up.

If you have about 3/4 of a cup to a cup of leftover cooked quinoa, brown rice, barley, etc, you could use that instead of the cracked wheat but since I didn't have any of those, the fact that the cracked wheat just needs to be soaked and not pre-cooked made it very convenient. As you see, I only made 2 stuffed peppers but I'm calling for 4 because I had enough filling to do 2 more. Guess I'm going to fold the rest of the filling into tomato sauce and put it on pasta.

4 servings
1 3/4 hours to 2 hours - 1 hour prep time

Roast the Peppers:
4 large greenhouse bell peppers

Broil the peppers for about 5 minutes per side until the skin is lightly browned. Let them cool enough to handle, then peel and core them. Turn them upside down to drain as you make the filling. Allow 20 minutes for this; it may not take quite that long but then again it may. 

Stuff & Bake the Peppers:
1/3 cup cracked wheat
1 medium onion
6 to 8 medium (125 grams; 1/2 pound) button mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic (optional)
250 grams (1/2 pound) raw sausage
a little mild vegetable oil
125 grams (1/4 pound) cheese curds OR other mild cheese, diced
2 to 3 cups tomato sauce 

Meanwhile, boil some water and put the cracked wheat into a small bowl with a couple of shakes of salt. Pour over about 1 cup of boiling water, cover, and let soak for about 10 or 15 minutes. Drain well.

Peel and chop the onion. Wash, trim, and cut the mushrooms 3 or 4 times in both directions to form little sticks. Peel and mince the garlic, if you are using it. Remove the casing from the sausage and crumble it. I used smoked but raw sausage; this was sufficient heat to make the casing stick too much to remove, and since it was not particularly thick I decided to leave it and just chop the sausage fairly finely.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a shallow casserole dish which will hold all the peppers neatly.

Heat a little oil in a medium skillet. You need enough to keep the onion and mushrooms, which are about to go in, from sticking but then the sausage will also go in, and it will likely exude a certain amount of fat, so the trick is to keep the veggies from sticking but not end up with too much grease.

Add the onion and mushroom to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally until slightly softened. Add the sausage and cook for another few minutes, until the sausage seems to be mostly cooked. Add the garlic - although you should consider the flavouring of the sausage you are using - and cook for another minute or two. If you wish to add any other seasonings, now is the time; I find it hard to recommend any as it all depends on how your sausage is already flavoured. Since I used smoked sausage I just added a small bit of smoked paprika and some pepper. When the sausage is done, remove the pan from the heat. Mix in the drained cracked wheat and let the mixture cool enough to handle. Chop up about half the cheese curds and mix them in.

Stuff the peppers with the prepared mixture and place them in the oiled pan. Drizzle the sauce over and around them. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. After they have been in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes, sprinkle the remaining cheese curds over them.





Last year at this time I made Hungarian Seasoning Blend.

Posted in: Ontario Food