Meatball Stuffed Peppers

Pete was cleaning off my car during the last snowstorm when he got the idea that he wanted to make stuffed peppers.

And then, hours later, I was eating his idea.

I wish I come up with ideas and just turn them into delicious meals. I can't. I've got the baking thing down pat, but cooking is all Pete. And trust me. I don't mind.

You can pretty much stuff peppers with anything that will fit inside a pepper. This time around, Pete stuffed them with a variation of his mom's meatball recipe. I asked him for the recipe so I could post it on Tasty Thursdays. He told me that I'll only receive the recipe when we exchange marriage vows ... and even then I'm not allowed to broadcast it to all of cyberspace.

Sigh.

I can, however, tell you the stuffed pepper process, and that's gonna have to be enough. 

Gather your ingredients, which will be some variation of peppers, Italian seasoning, garlic, eggs, peccorino romano cheese, bread crumbs, and meat. We used sausage and ground turkey, but you can use pork, beef, whatever your taste buds like.

The first thing you're gonna wanna do is clean the peppers. Wash them to get off all the pesticides and germs from other people grabbing them in the store. Cut the tops off and spoon out the insides. Put them off to the side because we're not ready for them yet.

Measure out the dry ingredients and the garlic. You can use fresh garlic if you have it on hand or the stuff in the jar if you don't. Garlic powder [[my fave spice]] isn't gonna work here. Then again, if you ask Pete, it doesn't really work anywhere. 

Put this to the side.

Cut the casing off the sausage. Now, I'm sure most of you know this, but I'm throwing it out there just in case you don't know this.

Incorporate the dry ingredients with the meat. Mix until blended [[you've gotta use your hands for this one]].

Put the meat to the side because now it's time to season your peppers.

Pete always says, "Season every step of the way." I really thought that was overkill until I started watching the Food Network non-stop and realizing they say the same thing.

So season your peppers with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. If there's any excess that accumulates on the bottom, feel free to dump it out. You want to season every step of the way, not overseason every step of the way.

Stuff your peppers.

 and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes on a foil-lined cookie sheet. In that time, you can prepare anything you're planning to have for a side: salad, pasta, what have you. We, however, used that time to watch the Giants game.

Take your peppers out of the oven, cut them in half, top with a sauce of your choice and a bit of cheese, and serve.