Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Spicy Stuffed Peppers

A new cookbook for my collection: Michael Symon's Live to Cook. I was excited to get this book after visiting his restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio last year. He has two restaurants Lola and Lolita, we went to Lola, and so far in my lifetime it was one of the best restaurants I have had the pleasure of eating in.

His book includes recipes from his restaurants, as well as, family recipes easy to cook at home. The first recipe I tried from the book was an appetizer of spicy stuffed peppers. I believe my husbands comment about this dish was "finally something with some spice!" This recipe uses his "Yia Yia's" sunday tomato sauce and his recipe for homemade pork sausage. To simplify, I used my recipe for tomato sauce and a high quality spicy sausage from the butcher.

I found this part of his book amusing so I thought I would share it with you. Although I don't agree 100%  this is Michael Symon's Five Things You Should Never Buy:

1. Boneless, skinless chicken breast halves: Eating chicken without skin is like riding a bike without wheels: it's no fun, and it leaves your dish at a flavor standstill.

2. Lean turkey bacon: There is NO substitute for the magic that is smoky, fatty, delicious bacon, and the word lean should never be used when describing it.

3. I can't believe It's Not Butter and other butter substitutes: Believe me, it ain't butter, not even close. I'm certain the people who invented this have never really tasted butter and never tried to make a sauce with it. Stay away from margarine too. The only thing to use to replace butter is more butter.

4. Beef Tenderloin/filet mignon: Can we please get over our love affair with the most expensive and least flavorful part of the entire animal? Buy a beautifully marbled rib eye: it'll cost you less and make you happier.

5. Peeled, chopped garlic: The only thing that this has in common with fresh garlic is the breath it may produce. It certainly lacks the actual flavor of garlic. Are we really so lazy that we have to buy our garlic already cut for us?

Spicy Stuffed Peppers



















Ingredients: 
8 Hungarian hot peppers
1 1/2 pounds sausage-spicy or Italian
2 cups of tomato sauce-homemade or jarred
8 fresh basil leaves

1. Preheat broiler and char the peppers underneath the broiler on a baking sheet. Remove them from oven and reduce temperature to 375 degrees F.

2. Butter a 8 x 11 inch baking dish. Cut off the tops of the peppers and spoon out any seeds.

3. Divide sausage into 8 equal portions and spoon it into peppers to fill them.

4. Pour sauce into prepared baking dish and add the peppers on top.

5. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the sausage reaches 150 degrees F.

6. Divide among plates and spoon sauce on top. Garnish with basil leaf.

**The other way you can make these peppers is to grill the already stuffed peppers for 2 minutes per side and then place them in the oven with sauce and bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

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