Grandmom Lena’s Stuffed Italian Frying Peppers

This is a different kind of stuffed pepper. We use a very flavorful bread stuffing. Large scale fights would break out over who got seconds of these…I’m the youngest of the “Grandchildren” on my Dad’s side of the family and I used to help my Grandmom make these just so I could get first “dibs” on them before they hit the dinner table

• Ready In: 20 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 8 -12  italian frying sweet peppers
• 4  cups  Italian bread (somewhat stale, but not rock hard)
• 1 (796 ml) can tomatoes with basil
• 1 (375 ml) can pitted black olives, drained roughly chopped
• 1⁄2 cup  locatelli cheese, finely grated
• 6 -7  canned anchovy fillets, mashed or 6 -7  about 2 1/2 tsp anchovy paste
• 1  teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1⁄4 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 1⁄4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper (freshly ground)
•  additional  salt and pepper
•  oil (for frying)

Directions

1. wash and thoroughly dry peppers and cut the tops off. Remove seeds and white veins inside, keeping the body of the pepper whole.
2. Break the bread into pieces of varying size but nothing more than about a half inch square.
3. Remove the tomatoes from the can and squish into the bread breaking into pices (you may not have to use all the tomatoes in the can… go by how it looks and feels if it’s too dry add some of the juice from the can.) The mixture should be moist but not very wet.
4. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and incorporate thoroughly.
5. Stuff the bread mixture into the hollow peppers and level off on the top. (pack them fairly tightly but don’t jam or force the stuffing into the pepper).
6. Heat about ½ inch of oil in a deep frying pan on about medium high (I like to use half olive oil, half vegetable oil for the flavor).
7. Fry the stuffed peppers until the skin begins to turn golden brown, the pepper becomes soft and the filling is heated through.
8. Remove from oil and sprinkle with a little salt, if desired.
9. Can be served hot, warm or right out of the refrigerator! (p.s omit the anchovy and this is a nice vegetarian (not vegan) dish).