Spicy Sausage Stuffed Peppers

Spicy Sausage Stuffed Peppers – I recently made these for an Italian theme dinner along with my favourite pasta dish Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni. The ragu, made with sausages is richly flavoured with balsamic vinegar, fennel seeds and chilli resulting in a flavoursome filling for the sweet pepper. Topped with basil and Parmesan breadcrumbs and baked until crisp on top, these Stuffed Peppers are perfect as a main meal served with an Italian rocket salad. For the rocket salad, toss together rocket leaves and shaved Parmesan and dress with a balsamic and extra virgin olive oil dressing.

Recipe

Serves 6

Difficulty Level: Home Cook

Ingredients for the Spicy Sausage Stuffed Peppers

• 6 pack of sausages, preferably Italian flavoured (use sausages with at least 70% pork content)
• 1 red onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 stick celery
• Heaped tablespoon fennel seeds
• 1 red chilli or a tablespoon chilli flakes
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 5 cloves garlic
• 5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar Or red wine
• Bunch of basil leaves
• 3 sweet pointed peppers, halved
• Couple slices crusty bread
• 50g Parmesan
• Olive oil
• Salt and black pepper

Method

1. Use a food processor to pulse together the onion, carrot and celery until finely chopped
2. Add the sausages, chilli or chilli flakes and fennel seeds and pulse until it combines together.
3. Heat a large frying pan over a high heat and add a drizzle of olive oil.
4. Once the pan is hot, fry the sausage mix for around 10 minutes, stirring and breaking the mixture apart frequently.
5. Once the sausage mix is nicely browned, add the crushed garlic and balsamic vinegar or red wine. Stir and cook for one minute.
6. Add the tomato purée and tinned tomatoes and simmer for around 10 minutes. Season generously with salt and black pepper and stir through half the basil.
7. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 200C.
8. Use a food processor or blender to whizz together the remaining basil, the breadcrumbs and the Parmesan to crumbs.
9. Fill each pepper with the sausage mix and top with breadcrumbs. Cook for around 15-20 minutes until the pepper has softened slightly and the topping is golden brown.
10. Serve the Spicy Sausage Stuffed Peppers with Italian rocket and Parmesan salad!