So Simple Sausage Stuffed Peppers

Lately, I am loving anything made with Italian sausage – it packs so much flavor, making it super easy to make tasty dishes with minimal added ingredients or effort! These Simple Sausage Stuffed Peppers are no exception – add a side salad or a steamed vegetable and you have a complete meal!

These peppers are packed with all the good stuff – a meaty stuffing bursting with classic Italian flavors, tomatoes, onion, garlic, rice with lots of melty cheese on top! Classic stuffed Italian peppers are not only comforting and delicious, they are a feast for the eyes too! So colorful on your plate!

So simple! Start by slicing bell peppers lengthwise (The tops of peppers can be cut off for stuffing that way as well.  Either way works great!) and removing the seeds and core. To make the stuffing, first brown the ground sausage, then sauté the onions & garlic in the same pan. Next, add spices, rice and broth; simmer briefly, and then you are ready to stuff the peppers. Finally, top with lots of cheese and bake for 30 minutes. That’s it!

Short cuts to this dish

• Buy ground Italian sausage – not the links. Links are fine also, but they require you to slice the casing open, and scoop out all the sausage. With ground sausage, you can skip that step, and just dump it in the skillet to brown.
• Use a pre-cooked bag of rice. I like to use the microwave-in-the-pouch rice. These usually contain approximately 2 cups of rice, so, I just microwave and add the entire bag to the stuffing mix.

You can also assemble these ahead of time and refrigerate, then bake them when it’s time to eat!

So Simple Sausage Stuffed Peppers

Recipe by Kathy DickenCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy

Servings

5

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Total time

55

minutes

Sweet bell peppers stuffed with Italian sausage, tender rice, tomatoes, onion, and garlic, topped off with melty cheese – so simple, but so good!

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Italian sausage – ground

• 5 bell peppers – stems, seeds and white flesh removed

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 1 -2 cups cooked rice

• 1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes

• 3 cloves garlic – minced

• 1/2 yellow onion – chopped (1/3 cup)

• 1/2 cup chicken broth

• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 1/2 tsp ground pepper

• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

• 1 cup Mozzarella cheese-shredded

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Add 2 tbsp olive oil to large sauté pan over Medium-High heat. Add sausage and sauté until fully cooked through. Remove sausage, place in separate bowl, leave juices in pan.
• Lower heat to Medium and add in the onions. Sauté for 5 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook an additional minute. Add in the diced tomatoes, Worcestershire, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
• Add sausage, rice and chicken broth to tomato mixture. Stir to combine and allow flavors to meld for 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, cut the peppers in half horizontally OR cut off top & then stuff vertically. Either way remove the stem, seeds and white flesh from inside before stuffing.
• Place the peppers in a baking dish, and stuff with sausage mixture. Top with cheese & cover dish with foil.
• Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and return to the oven under Broil for 2 minutes until golden brown.