Italian Sausage Stuffed Banana Peppers Recipes

Steps:

• Clean peppers by carefull slicing a T into pepper being careful not to cut the cap off. slice down the length of pepper but leave enough at the bottom so that pepper is not cut to the very end. Remove all seeds. If you don't like your peppers too hot you can soak the cleaned peppers in cold water for and hour and this will lessen the heat of the pepper.
• Brown your sausage with the minced garlic, pepper & parsley.
• While sausage is cooking, crush the Ritz crackers into a fine crumbs. Add parmesan cheese to cracker mix and combine well.
• Remove cooked sausage and chop finely in blender so it appears more like ground sausage. Place ground sausage in bowl. Add crushed Ritz crackers and parmesan cheese and mix well. Add 1-2 Tbsp of melted butter to mix so help make the stuffing moist if it appears to dry but not wet.
• Preheat stove to 375 degrees.
• Spoon stuffing into peppers. Fill generously from top to bottom of pepper.
• Depending what type of dish or dishes you use to bake the peppers, I ususally use 2 casserole dishes and pour the olive oil into the bottom of the pans so there is about a 1/2 of olive oil in pans. Lay peppers in baking dishes. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Pull peppers out and generously spread shredded mozzarella cheese over peppers. Bake for 5-10 minutes so cheese is melted well.
• Cool slightly and serve.

Steps:

• Mix sausage, cheese, bread crumbs, salt and pepper, and egg together in mixing bowl. Season to taste. Adjust mixture with additional cheese and bread crumbs if too dry or moist - medium moisture for stuffing desired. Make a radial slice around the top of the banana pepper leaving the top intact. Pull back top and remove seeds if so desired. Gently stuff mixture into peppers. Place olive oil in hot saute pan. Gently place peppers in the pan and fry each side until browned. Place marinara sauce in middle of plate. Arrange peppers on top of marinara and grate the dry ricotta cheese on top of the hot peppers.

Steps:

• Cut off tops of peppers, and remove ribs and seeds. Chop edible portions of tops; set aside. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add peppers, reduce heat, and simmer until tender but still firm, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
• Heat butter in a medium skillet. Saute reserved chopped pepper, onion and celery until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and garlic. Season with basil, oregano, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, combine egg, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, Worcestershire sauce and Parmesan. Mix in hot sausage, mild sausage, bread crumbs and 1 cup of the tomato sauce mixture.
• Using a piping bag or sausage stuffer, fill each pepper with the meat mixture. Place in a 3 quart casserole dish, and pour remaining tomato sauce mixture over peppers.
• Bake uncovered in preheated oven for 1 hour.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a roasting pan (large enough to accommodate 8 pepper halves in a single layer) with cooking spray.
• Combine the ground sirloin, Italian sausage, brown rice, Italian seasonings, salt, pepper, garlic, Parmesan cheese, egg, and 1/2 cup Classico® Tomato & Basil sauce in a large bowl. Mix until combined.
• Divide meat mixture evenly among the green pepper halves; press to compress slightly. Arrange halves in prepared pan. Spoon the remaining Classico® Tomato & Basil sauce onto the tops of the meat and peppers. Cover tightly with foil.
• Bake until the peppers are soft and internal temperature of the meat reaches 165 degrees F, about 1 1/2 hours.
• Remove from oven. Remove foil and top each pepper with shredded cheese.
• Turn oven to broil. Place peppers, uncovered under the broiler. Broil until the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley.