Italian Stuffed Bell Peppers

Submitted by Midwest Maven

"This is the recipe my mom always made when I was little, in my Italian family in NJ:) It's very simple but delicious, and I find the simplest recipes are always my favorites."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 20mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 1⁄2 cups cooked white rice
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper
• garlic powder
• 3 medium size green bell peppers
• 1 (67 ounce) jar pasta sauce (I use Prego traditional or make homemade)

directions

1. In a large bowl mix together the cooked rice and the raw ground beef.
2. Add the egg, salt, pepper, and garlic powder to your taste, and mix very well.(I find it's best to mix it with your hands like meatloaf.).
3. Prepare the peppers by cutting them in half from top to bottom like an apple, so you have two identical halves. Take off the stem and remove the seeds.
4. Fill the pepper halves equally with the rice mixture. Set them down in a 13x9" baking pan that you have put a little of the sauce on the bottom of first.
5. Generously spoon sauce over the stuffed top of each pepper and then pour the remaining sauce around the peppers in the pan.
6. Sprinkle the top with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
7. Bake at 350°F until the peppers are very soft and tender when tested with a knife.(depending on your oven maybe an hour or so; mine takes longer because my oven is ancient:).
8. Spoon the sauce over the peppers at least three or four times while they are cooking. The sauce will thicken slightly as you bake the peppers and get delicious and rich.
9. Enjoy!

Reviews

[lazyme]

I really enjoyed this dish. I used a yellow bell pepper since I didn't have a green one. But this was easy and good. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Charlotte G.]

Italian style stuffed peppers are my favorite. With mine I add chopped onion, mozzarella cheese, bread crumbs, and a little Italian salad dressing to add moisture and flavor to the meat. I also sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top of the sauce and use other peppers than just green. Making it right now with orange peppers.

 

[Just_Gwen]

I made this once previously for my man but he complained that it lacked flavor. I made the following adjustments and found it to be extra yummy (though I liked it well enough before). I also scaled the recipe to make just two servings: 1/4 lb ground beef, 1 egg (hard to get around using a whole one), 3/4 c rice, 3 T onion chopped, 1 garlic clove minced, 1/4 cup italian blend cheese, and a few dashes italian seasoning. The peppers were very full but baked up perfectly after 45 minutes. Served it with the baguette I baked yesterday smeared in garlicky goodness. We were very happy with this dinner! I also thought mixing a little sauce into the filling wouldn't be amiss, though we are extra sauce folks.

 

[Boomette]

I used green bell peppers but the taste would have been better with red. I found that the meat mixture needed more flavor. It would be great with dried seasoning. Maybe some basil, oregano... A little bit of mozzarella melted on top would add so much flavors. After 1 hour they were cooked through. Thanks Midwest Maven :) Made for Count Dracula and His Hot Bites for ZWT7

 

[Nasseh]

This recipe is very similar to the one I have been using for years. The only difference is that I didn't use garlic powder in my stuffed peppers. It was a nice addition. Made for ZWT 7