How to Make Italian Stuffed Peppers

To make an authentic Italian stuffed pepper, embrace la dolce vita, and keep it simple, keep it fresh, and fill it with passion and with love. A stuffed pepper has three main components: the filling, the herbs and spices, and the pepper. To make a truly Italian stuffed paper, you need to consider a few things about each component. You can apply these principles to any basic stuffed pepper recipe to make it taste as it came from Italy.

By Maurissa Moore

How to Make a Stuffed Pepper Taste Like it Came From Italy

Most stuffed pepper recipes call for a meat, rice, and tomato sauce combination that is boosted with herbs, spices, and aromatics. Consider the following Italian cooking traditions as you prepare each part of your stuffed pepper.

Replace the Rice with Bread Crumbs:

Unless their making a risotto, Italians don’t typically use rice in their cooking. A traditional Italian stuffed pepper will have dried bread crumbs instead of rice. You can use store-bought Italian bread crumbs to save time. If you really want to get authentic, then you can dry or toast some Italian bread, crumble it up, and add it to your filling.

Although we typically think of pasta when we think of Italian food, in most regions, pasta is considered a starter or a side dish, and meat is meant to be the star of the table. Authentic Italian stuffed peppers include a combination of ground meats, typically ground beef, ground pork, and ground veal. You would use equal parts of each. If you don’t have these meats, then you can use all ground beef or a combination of beef and pork or beef and veal. Italians would never use ground turkey or chicken in a traditional stuffed pepper.

Many pasta sauces that you see in American grocery stores are not traditional Italian tomato sauces; they are packed with many more spices, herbs, and general additions than an authentic Italian tomato sauce. Italian cooks are proud of and like to highlight their local and fresh ingredients, and they don’t ever want to mask the sweet acidy of just-off-the-vine tomatoes with too many herbs and aromatics, and they don’t want the sauce itself to mask the other components of the dish. A traditional Italian tomato sauce contains these basic ingredients: olive oil, fresh garlic, fresh tomatoes or tomato puree, fresh parsley and/or basil, and coarse salt. That’s it.

The meats will contain enough fat to help thicken the filling when combined with bread crumbs, as will your sauce. Italians use olive oil and pretty much only olive oil as the fat in their dishes.

Use Fresh Herbs & Aromatics:

Italians only use fresh and simple herb combinations. The typical, dried “Italian Seasoning” mix that you probably have on your spice rack contains most of the herbs and spices Italians use; however, the mix requires you to use them all at once, which an Italian would not do. As with the tomato sauce, season your filling with just a few fresh herbs and spices, depending on the flavor profile that you want. Keep in mind what you’re adding to your sauce as you season your meat. You do, however, want to season your meat before adding the sauce components. You can start with some chopped onion sauteed in a bit of olive oil before adding your meat, and then you can add some salt and pepper to your filling.

Other fresh herbs you could include are basil, parsley, or oregano; you wouldn’t want to use all three. Rosemary could also work, and you’ll just want to keep in mind that it’s a strong herb that will stand out, and you won’t want to combine it with anything other than salt and pepper.

Give The Bell Pepper a Dark Roast:

Italians like their olive oil, and they like to use it to give their roasted veggies a dark roast. Coat the outside of your pepper with olive oil, and give it a nice dark roast. Depending on the base recipe that you’re using and how long you cook your meat before adding it to the pepper, you can even pre-roast your pepper before adding the filling and finishing it off in the oven.

Another American misconception is that all Italian food is covered in cheese, which isn’t really true. For example, a traditional Roman lasagna doesn’t have ricotta cheese as the filling and a thick layer of melted mozzarella on top; it has a bit of parmesan and/or romano cheese blended into a bechamel sauce, which is a creamy base sauce consisting of olive oil or butter, flour, and milk or cream. You can add cheese to your peppers; however, if you want to keep it authentic, melting a pile of grated mozzarella onto the tops of your peppers is not the way to go. You can add a bit of grated parmesan or another hard Italian cheese to your filling before stuffing your peppers, and/or you can sprinkle some on the top before serving your peppers. Other than that, a traditional stuffed pepper from Italy would contain little to no cheese.

Use these principles to turn any basic stuffed bell pepper recipe into an authentic Italian dish by keeping it simple and keeping it fresh. Serve your peppers on their own, or you can add a small side of pasta with some of your tomato sauce. A glass of Italian red wine is also a fantastic and truly Italian way to enjoy your meal. And remember, the most common and most successful Italian ingredient is passion and love. Buon