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.
