If you've been regularly reading my blog
and have an attention span greater than that of a gnat,
then you might recall Angela from Wisconsin
had requested a recipe
from
Just Ask Rosie
for
stuffed peppers.
And I delivered 5 different stuffed peppers,
my favorite being the "Southwestern,"
with corn, black beans, some other stuff, and cheese.
Well, Angela and Dear Readers,
I have another stuffed pepper recipe for you that I made last night.
I generally don't care for orzo pasta,
but this time I made an orzo stuffing
for the peppers which was quite good.
I hope you'll enjoy it too.

I poured a can of low sodium chicken stock in my pan
and brought it to a boil.

Then I added in 1/2 cup of orzo
and cooked for about 4 minutes.

Here are the rest of the ingredients for my stuffing:
3 Roma tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
1/2 zucchini
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
mint
parsley
basil
salt and pepper
I chopped my tomatoes and minced the garlic.
I chopped all the herbs and added to the tomatoes.
I peeled and diced the zucchini
and added it in.

And my grated Parmesan cheese went in.

I added the orzo, salt and pepper,
and stirred to mix.

The stuffing is ready to go into my peppers.
I had to do a taste test at this point and I must say
it's tasting pretty good right now.
So I had to try about 5-6 more spoonfuls
just to be sure.
I sliced the tops off my peppers,
scraped out the ribs,
and stuffed with the orzo mixture.

I placed the peppers in my baking dish ...

... and poured water half-way up.

If you have a misshapen pepper like the red one,
prop it up with some foil.
Here are my peppers after
45 minutes, covered, in a 400 degree oven.
I added more Parmesan cheese over top
then put the peppers back in the oven
until the cheese was nicely browned.
And here are my orzo-stuffed peppers.
I have to say, these were quite good.
I loved the cheese.
Cheese makes everything better.
(If I had it to do over,
I would have put Mozzarella cheese in with the stuffing,
along with the Parmesan, just because I like
gooey, melted cheese.)
I liked all the flavors - the tomato, the freshness of the herbs.
And you had the slight texture of the zucchini
contrasting with the softness of the pasta.
And the Parmesan cheese.
Did I mention the cheese?

I could have eaten just the stuffing alone and been happy.
But the stuffing inside the pepper was even better
since you had the roasted pepper flavor
permeating the stuffing.
I nuked one of the leftover stuffed peppers for lunch today,
after adding some slices of Mozzarella.
The gooey, ooey Mozzarella
made this even better.
After nuking the pepper,
I noticed the skin was peeling off a bit,
so I pulled it off all the way
and put the roasted pepper in a jar
with a little olive oil over top
and will use that later in some dish
I've yet to come up with.
Please try the peppers.
You'll be glad you did.
you inspired me Rosie! I am gonna make some Mexican stuffed peppers tomorrow. Will post on FaceBook.
ReplyDeletethanks
P