Stuffed Peppers from the Freezer (ATK)

• doses: 4-6

Ingredientes

Peppers and Stuffing

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped fine

8 ounces ground beef, preferably 85 percent lean

4 ounces hot or sweet Italian sausage, casings removed

Salt and pepper

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups leftover cooked rice

1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

4 medium red bell peppers,

4 cut in half through stem end (stem left intact), cored, and seeded

For Serving

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Instruções

1. For the peppers: Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Cook onion until softened and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high and add beef, sausage, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper; cook, breaking meat into small pieces with wooden spoon, until meat begins to brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Drain mixture in colander for 1 minute.

2. Transfer meat mixture to large bowl and mix with rice, tomatoes, mozzarella, Parmesan, parsley, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Refrigerate until well chilled, at least 20 minutes.

3. Spoon filling evenly into bell peppers. Wrap each pepper with 2 layers of plastic wrap and 1 layer of foil. Place in baking dish and freeze until firm. Transfer to zipper-lock plastic bag and freeze up to 2 months.

4. When ready to serve: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Cut 8 pieces foil large enough to just cover stuffing in peppers, and spray with cook- ing spray. Unwrap peppers and cover filling sides with new foil squares. Using skewer, poke several holes through foil. Place peppers, foil side down, over vents of slotted broiler-pan top set over broiler-pan bottom. Brush peppers with oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bake until peppers are spotty brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Flip peppers filling side up, remove foil, and sprinkle with mozzarella. Bake until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

FROM-THE-FREEZER STUFFED PEPPERS WITH WHITE BEANS SERVES 4 TO 6

In step 1, omit beef and sausage. Cook onion, salt, and pepper until onion is golden brown, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Do not drain. Stir in one 15-ounce can drained and rinsed cannellini beans. Stir into rice mixture.

Notas

Stuffed Peppers from the Freezer Stuffed peppers are often soggy and tasteless, and freezing them only makes matters worse. We wanted our stuffed peppers to freeze well and to taste even better.

Stuffed peppers don't freeze well. Freezing dulls the flavor of the filling and makes the peppers mushy (the water in the peppers expands as it freezes, causing the cell walls, which give the pepper structure, to rupture). I solved the flavor problem by adding potent ingredients like sausage, Parmesan cheese, and fresh herbs to the filling. To repair the peppers' mushy consistency, I thought I might be able to make the freezer's softening power work for me and eliminate the usual step of blanching the peppers before stuffing them. After conducting side-by- side tests, I concluded that you can either blanch the peppers or you can freeze them, but you can't do both. For my freezer recipe, blanching was out. Excessive oven time and moisture were my next big chal- lenges. I found that baking the frozen peppers straight from the freezer was the best way to preserve their flavor and texture, but the filling was taking two hours to reach a safe temperature, by which time the peppers were swimming in a sea of their own juices. Splitting the peppers through the stem (instead of lopping off the top) halved the cooking time and made them more stable, but they still needed to be elevated above their cooking juices. Baking my shallow stuffed-pepper "boats" on a broiler pan let most of the pepper juice drain away, but some remained trapped in the filling. I found that piercing each pepper several times with a fork allowed this last bit of excess moisture to drain.

My peppers were better, but now tasters complained (rightfully so) about the tough pepper skin. Trying to mimic the soft, toasty sweetness of roasted red peppers, I made a new batch in which I brushed the pepper skins with oil, covered the filling side with foil to hold in the filling, and roasted the peppers, skin side up, in a 450-degree oven. In only 30 minutes, the skin and flesh of the peppers were browned and tender. Since I was now bak- ing the stuffed peppers upside down, I found that it was most effective to poke the drainage holes in the foil covers rather than the peppers themselves. I had won over all the test kitchen skeptics who doubted that stuffed peppers could be this good, and a final layer of gooey melted cheese was just the right finishing touch for this resuscitated classic. -Cali Rich

Kitchen Know-How A BETTER WAY TO STUFF PEPPERS

1. Cut each pepper in half through the stem end to create two shallow boats. Discard the core and seeds.

2. When ready to bake, unwrap the stuffed pepper halves, cover the filling with foil, and poke several holes in the foil to allow excess liquid to evaporate.

3. Place the pepper halves foil side down over the vents on the slotted top of a broiler pan.

If you don't have leftover rice on hand, we recommend Uncle Ben's Ready Rice. We prefer sweet red peppers in this recipe; green peppers, while traditional, were too bitter. Ground turkey can be substituted for the beef.

A rich filling with ground beef, Italian sausage, and two kinds of cheese enlivens this summer classic.

COOK'S COUNTRY • AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2006