Eating Locally -- August 9, 2010

Monday night, and I'm always trying to figure out what to make for dinner. I was out of town this past weekend and haven't been to the store yet. So, last night, I went pilfering through the freezer to see if I had anything worth defrosting. I found a package of ground turkey. In the fridge, I found 6 green peppers, mushrooms, squash, and a few other things. Hmmm.. I'm never going to eat 6 green peppers on their own, so I need to do something with them. I decided to improvise a recipe for stuffed peppers. So, here we go, Stuffed Peppers a la Spice.

I grabbed a rectangular baking dish, preheated the oven to 375 and spread a thin layer of marinara sauce in the bottom of the dish. I cut the tops off 6 green peppers, seeded them and placed them in a baking dish. I discarded the tops.



I took the three small spring onions, a couple of hungarian (or maybe banana) peppers (whatever was in my farm share) and a couple of cloves of garlic and chopped those up. Side note, I wasn't paying too much attention after cutting up the peppers before scratching my nose. I spent the next 20 minutes googling remedies for pepper burns and remedies. I'll spare you the visual. It's been almost an hour, and there's still a slight tingling on my nose from my ill-fated sneeze earlier. So, please, kids, learn from my mistake.



I sauteed the aromatics in a couple of glugs of olive oil over medium heat, about 15 minutes, while I chopped up half an 8 oz. package of sliced mushrooms and a yellow squash. When the onion, pepper and garlic mix was done, I added the veggies and a nice pinch of salt and pepper. I tossed in some of my favorite multi-purpose seasoning mix (one by Penzey's called Tuscan Sunset) and cooked the veggies until they were done. I put them in a large bowl. I added one package of ground turkey and browned it until it was no longer pink in the middle. I drained off the fat, and added it to the veggie mix in the bowl.

For a binding agent, I didn't want to use eggs, and I didn't feel like cooking up some rice or anything. I eyeballed a 1/2 cup or so of plain, dried breadcrumbs, sprinkled on some grated parmesan cheese, and added about half of a 15 oz. container of low-fat ricotta cheese. I mixed things up thoroughly and filled each pepper with the mixture (and had just enough mix for the 6 peppers). I topped each with a spoon or two of marinara sauce and a little fresh parmesan for the top.



I baked the peppers for about 25 minutes (altho truthfully, they could have gone another 10, the peppers were still a little raw). I paired this one with a glass of King Family Vineyards 2008 Chardonnay. The filling has nice flavor, so I think this one will be a keeper! And, once again, most of the ingredients came from my farm share.