bolognese stuffed peppers

Ingredients– 1/2 cup uncooked white rice, 2 tablespoons olive oil (divided),1/8 cup minced carrots, 1/8 cup celery, 6 bell peppers (any color) stems and seeds removed, cut in half lengthwise, 1/2 pound ground beef, 1/4 pound pancetta or lightly smoked bacon (diced), 1 1/2 cups prepared marinara sauce, 1/4 cup red wine, 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flake, 1/3 cup heavy cream(from walmart, don’t hate!), 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese  (Italicized ingredients weren’t used in my recipe since I had the bolognese sauce from earlier this week. And of course I didn’t use celery. I HATE celery and will never cook with it!)

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and remove seeds and stems from peppers

2.In a saucepan bring water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until tender and fluffy; set aside. (I’m the absolute worst at cooking rice. I screw it up every time and I don’t know why! I put in the exact amount of water and rice that it calls for, it just never comes out right. It’s never light and fluffy, it’s usually gummy and kind of paste-like. Any suggestions? Get a rice cooker? Ok!)

3. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Cook and stir carrots and celery until tender. Add ground beef and pancetta, and cook until browned and crumbled; drain off any excess liquid, and return to heat. Add marinara sauce, wine, and red pepper flakes, and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in cream, half of the Parmesan cheese, and rice. Simmer 5 minutes more, or until most liquid has absorbed.

4. Place peppers in a shallow baking dish, and fill with beef mixture. Drizzle with remaining olive oil and top with remaining Parmesan cheese.

5. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Serve hot.

mmmmm...with some parm on top!

 

I loved these peppers. I  didn’t eat anything else with it because they were so filling.  It’s an entire meal in a bell pepper! What else  did I need? I got the recipe from Allrecipes.com and saw tons of “remixes” on the recipe. Some people added corn, zucchini, onion and chicken. I plan to make this in the future, and when I do, I think I’ll try shredded chicken. The only complaint I have about this recipe is that after baking for 30 minutes, the bell peppers were still “raw” tasting. I baked half of them, (only half because if I ruined them, I didn’t want to ruin them all!) for an extra 30 minutes, and the pepper was still crisp and raw-y. I wanted them to have more of a chile relleno feel. A friend told me to try boiling them for a couple of minutes before filling them. Hopefully that will help.