3 Mulligans

This is a recipe for stuffed peppers that is a combination of one I got from Craig and one I read about on foodwishes.com with some of my own additions.

Peppers:

• 12 green or red peppers; cut off caps and save, remove the stem; scrape the seeds out; trim the bottoms to make the peppers level; poke knife slits in the bottom of the peppers

Stuffing:

• 3 # of raw meat (I use 2# of lean ground beef and 1 # of spicy Italian sausage, deskinned and broken up)
• 2 cups tomato (pasta) sauce (I use a good, flavorful brand with lots of spices)
• 1 cup beef broth
• 3 cups of cooked rice (I use Lundberg wild blend)
• 3 t salt
• 1 t ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley 
• 6 cloves finely minced garlic
• 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
• 1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
  

Once the stuffing is well mixed, scoop it into the peppers. After that, add a generous spoonful of Parmesan cheese, then a spoonful of pasta sauce (these are in addition to what’s in the stuffing), then put a cap back on each pepper. Please do not try to match each pepper cap with its appropriate pepper body. You will only waste valuable time and look foolish.

In each pan (12 peppers means 2 baking pans in my house) add:

• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 cup tomato (pasta) sauce in each pan
• 1/2 t red pepper flakes
  
• 1/4 cup beef broth in each pan

Put the peppers in the pans and wrap each pan in foil and cook for 1 hour at 375. Then unwrap and cook for another 20-30 minutes, until peppers are tender (wrinkly and even a little blackened on the edges). Yum!

[Certainly, this recipe could be made healthier and the flavor would probably not change at all. I doubt the cheese adds much to the already rich flavors, and broth in the stuffing is probably not necessary either. And for a more crumbly inside, I would add more rice and less meat.]