Nurturing my inner... sausage and peppers twist

Old fav: Any church potluck in Connecticut that little, old Italian ladies make sausage and peppers for.
New fav: My sausage and rice stuffed peppers.

Looks like it's time to take on the New England Nonnas.  (Since I dropped about $50 at the Farmers' Market yesterday, I'd best get crackin'.)

The motherload of fresh produce from the Reston Farmers' Market.  This is just to taunt you.  I'm not using it all in my dish today.

Like a cornucopia! Minus the container
of coffee I didn't realize snuck into
the shot in the top corner.

Sausage, Wild Rice and Veggie Stuffed Peppers

2 large, mild banana peppers (I chose a red and a yellow, but they also come in green)
1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 cup Lundburger's cooked wild rice blend (bulk section of Whole Foods)
1/4 chopped white onion
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 small eggplant, peeled, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
1/8 tsp dried oregano
6 fresh basil leaves, ripped into pieces
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tsp grated Parmesan cheese

There is an organic farm, Fertile Plains, out of West Virginia that brings meat and eggs to the market.  I've bought their sausage before and it's just the best!  (Plus, the guy calls me honey, and I think that's really sweet.)

I bought extra to freeze.

For this recipe, I took out a couple links.

This is the least appetizing portion of the program.

The links are in a natural casing.  Which has to be removed to cook.  I do that by slicing it down the middle first.

And this picture is no better than the last.
Raw meat is yuck! No matter how
you slice it.

Warning: This next picture is gross.  But hey, farm life is hard.  You deserve to know the truth.  If you want to make this dish, and you're committed to eating meat for the rest of your life, the casing has got to come off.

Iew, iew, iew. Yeah, there is just no nice
way to present this, so toughen up.

Now that that's out of the way, thank goodness, I'll show you how I pack the rest for the freezer.  It makes it easier to stack and thaw later.  I take two links and flatten them out in a square so they are 1/4 inch thick.

Like meaty modeling clay.

Then I wrap them all up and they pile up nicely in a bag and into the freezer they will go.

Nope, this ain't no TV dinner!

When it comes time to defrost them, the thinner packing gives it more surface space and therefore, thaws much faster.  Planning ahead can save you bunches of time later.  Who wouldn't want that?

Back to our meal.  Time to cook up the sausage that you aren't freezing.  You don't need any oil or anything because the sausage fat renders when it gets hot and stops it from sticking.

Broken into littler pieces.

After about 10 minutes, it will have a crusty, crispy brown outside and look like this:

I took it out of the pan and put into a bowl.

Then I sauteed the garlic and onion in the little bit of fat that was left over in the pan.  There really wasn't much, just enough so that I didn't need to add anything to it.

Always adds good flavor.

When done, drop into the bowl with the sausage.

The building blocks of greatness.

Let's talk rice.  Let's talk wild rice.  Well, why don't you talk, because I don't really know how to cook it.  Though, since you're not here to help me, guess I'm on my own again.

I used the bulk section at Whole Foods and bought just half a cup of Lundberger's Wild Blend to try.  That didn't seem like too much of a commitment.  And I thought it would be a nice way to ease myself into the dark and chewy rice that I'm not used to, but desperately wanted to make.

A rice rainbow of color.

I read up on this.  This is my conclusion.  More water is better than less water.  They (the rice experts) say 1 cup of rice to 3 or 4 cups of water.  I was only making 1/2 cup, so I used 3 cups of water.




This action shot took perfect timing.


After a short while, the water turns a murky dark muddy color.  How appealing.  Do not be afraid!  I'm sure there is a reason.  Just do not look for the explanation here.

Is there still rice in there? I hope so.

This takes a bit of time.  Wild rice needs to be tamed.  About 40 - 45 minutes and then you'll have to taste it for doneness.  Should be a bit chewier than white rice, but not hard.  The outer shell on some grains burst open, so that can be a good indicator.  Drain.

I rinsed with lukewarm water because I was
going to be cooking it longer in my dish.

Need a little veggie addition.  Why yes I think I do!

I bought extras for other meals and
to cook and fresh freeze.

Chopped up zucchini.

Cut in half, then half again.

Peeled the eggplant, then chopped it up in about the same size pieces.  Add to pan with olive oil.

Going for softer consistency, so
medium heat will do.

I thought about what spices to add.  I tossed in dried oregano, but seeing I had just bought fresh basil, I forewent the dried version of that and added a the lovely fresh splash of flavor and color.  Tossed it all up.

All the ingredients in one bowl.
Yes, we can all just get along.

Not sure if the peppers would stick, so I went ahead and gave the dish a little preventative spray.

A slight sheen.

The stars of the show, enter.  "Straight from time in the sunshine on the farm land circuit, Mr. and Mrs. Banana Pepper!"  (Waah, the Internet goes wild.)

"Kiss me my sweet, little red pepper."

Slice in half.  They say to remove the membrane and seeds.  I guess that's where baby peppers come from.  Go ask your mother.

The inner workings of a pepper.

Line up cleaned and prepped peppers in the baking dish.  I left the stems on for presentation purposes.

It was a bit of a tight fit, but I made it work.

You gotta use your hands here.  Mostly because it's fun.  Stuff the peppers with the sausage and rice mixture.  (And take a picture with your left hand, because though you're right-handed, you're getting good at this.)

Rice got all over me.

Sausage and peppers wouldn't be complete without one more thing.  But first, cheese.  I'm sure there are deeply opposing schools of thought on the order here.  Mostly people would think to put the sauce down first, then the cheese.  Like a pizza.  But I am going to cover this dish with foil and what cheeses me off is when cheese melts, gets stuck to the foil and comes off.  (Guess that's where that saying comes from.)

Mmm, mmm. Nothing more to be said.

Now for the secret weapon.  I know you're going to kill me over this, because this is very special stuff you can't get but one place on the planet and that is going to make you mad.  Shout out to Mattie's Deli in Derby, CT.  Town of my Dad's birth.  A place that is a complete hole in the wall and you can't even sit down in there.  The sauce is downright magical.  I don't know what they put in it, but it's amazing.  Nothing else can compare.  I ♥ Mattie's.

Secret weapon engaged.

I'm sure any pasta sauce will do.  (Yeah right.  My fake attempt at consolation was heartless and pathetic.)  You have no choice, so though I pity you, I rejoice in my own good fortune.  (Local pals can come over and I'll share though.)  I covered with foil and then baked in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.  I've learned a lot lately about why foil is used when you bake and that is because it creates steam and steam is our friend.

Two things to note: 1.) Some people say to blanch or par boil the peppers for five minutes before you cook to make them softer.  I'm sure that's a fine idea, but I didn't do it.  2.) They say you can cook the entire dish for 30 minutes covered and then 10 uncovered if the cheese is on top and you want to make it all bubbly.  Then you'd be from THAT group.

This seems as good a time as any to tell you that I made too much filling.  About double too much.  Which lets you know that this amount is ideal for about four peppers.  But I had a great idea.  I took the left over half and put it in a bag and froze it.  This way, the next time I want to make this dish, I just have to buy fresh peppers and defrost the filling.  How brilliant is that!

Back to the flatten and freeze technique.

Timer went off.  It's been 40 minutes.  I can't wait any longer.

Oooh, ahhh. And no lost cheese that got
attached to the foil. So there.

One thing missing.  Just a bit of Parmesan.

Yep, that did it.

The peppers were still firm without being crunchy, which is how I prefer them for this.  But the par boil tip from above that some others had mentioned might be of use to you if you prefer your veggie just a little softer.  Serve in fancy bowl if you have one.

Ooh, perhaps the bowl was too fancy.
You can hardly see the pepper in there.

I always make just a little extra and I've become a big fan of freezing the rest for quick future lunches or dinners.  So, I froze two servings and then put one in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch at work.

I had a bit of extra rice too, so I threw that
on top before I froze this one.

If I was going to a potluck at the church this week, I think my reinvented peppers stuffed with sausage would be the envy of all those little, Italian nonnas.  Oh yeah, it's go time grannies!