Italian Sausage Stuffed Peppers are a hearty and easy meal you can have on the table in 45 minutes. What’s not to love about a recipe that provides everything in a single dish?
As I mentioned in my Feta, Walnut Bean Salad post, we were blessed with an abundance of produce from multiple friends. This included a plethora of peppers. Of course that meant stuffed peppers were a must! My goal was to try something a little different, but still keep it easy enough for a weekday meal. The result was this delightful recipe!
Italian Sausage Stuffed Peppers
Fun Twists & Easy Buttons
To mix things up a bit, I swapped the typical ground beef and tomato sauce combination for an Italian spin. Mild Italian Sausage kicked up the flavor with it’s savory blend of spices. If you prefer a little more heat, try Hot Italian Sausage.
Another fun twist was using marinara sauce vs tomato sauce. This lends a ton of flavor without the need to raid your spice pantry. Aka – easy button! I opted for Bertolli Rustic Cut Marinara, which is a nice chunky sauce I really enjoy. Of course, there are many options, so choose your own favorite red sauce. Shredded Parmesan adds even more flavor to this Italian-inspired recipe. It does boost the sodium though. If that’s a concern, you can reduce or omit the Parmesan. I also used instant microwavable rice (my favorite being Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice) as my other easy button.
Quite honestly, I assumed everyone had experienced stuffed peppers somewhere along the line. Yet, I was surprised when a friend of ours mentioned he’d never tried them. How can this be? Such a simple and hearty meal with endless variations. Whether you’ve never had stuffed peppers, or consider them as familiar as your favorite jeans, you’ll enjoy this simple and tasty recipe.
Feeling Adventurous?
Here’s another, very different, but equally delicious stuffed pepper recipe.
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Italian Sausage Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1/4 lb mild Italian sausage
- 3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 1/2 cup purchased marinara sauce
- 2 cups cooked white rice I use Uncle Ben's Ready Rice which cooks in 90 seconds)
- 3 bell peppers (red, green, yellow or combination) halved vertically with stems & seeds removed
- chopped fresh basil, if desired
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet and saute onion until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1 additional minute. Add sausage, crumbling it as it cooks until no pink remains.While sausage is cooking, fill a Dutch oven with water deep enough to cover pepper halves and bring to boil. Blanch pepper halves for 5 minutes (I cooked my peppers in 2 batches.) Place blanched peppers on a cutting board to cool briefly. Note – the end result after baking will be a crisp-tender pepper.If you prefer a softer pepper, blanch for a few additional minutes.Add Parmesan, marinara sauce and prepared rice to the cooked sausage mixture and stir well to combine. Stuff mixture into pepper halves and place in baking dish. Pour water into the dish to a depth of about 1 inch. Bake peppers for 30 minutes. Garnish with fresh chopped basil if desired.
Looks delicious.