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Italian Stuffed Peppers

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5 from 1 review

These Italian stuffed peppers have all your favorite flavors of lasagna but without the pasta! Layers of meaty marinara sauce, creamy pesto cheese, and shredded mozzarella are nestled inside a tender bell pepper and cooked until hot and bubbly. In under an hour you can have these delicious stuffed peppers on the dinner table!

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 yellow onion, diced
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 24 oz. spaghetti sauce
  • 8 oz. Lifeway Farmer cheese (or ricotta cheese)
  • 1/4 cup basil pesto
  • 4-6 bell peppers, halved lengthwise with the ribs and seeds removed
  • 8 oz. shredded mozzarella
  • Kosher salt
  • fresh cracked pepper

Garnish

  • grated Parmesan
  • fresh chopped parsley

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Slice peppers in half lengthwise and remove ribs and seeds.
  3. Place them cut side up in a large baking dish.
  4. Brush with 2 teaspoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
  5. Bake for 5 minutes.
  6. Heat remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.
  7. Add onion along with a couple pinches of salt and pepper and cook for 4 minutes, stirring frequently.
  8. Add garlic and Italian seasoning along with a couple pinches of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, for 1 minute.
  9. Add ground beef to the pan and brown until cooked through, crumbling it with a spatula as it cooks.
  10. Stir in spaghetti sauce and season to taste with salt and pepper.
  11. In a small bowl, combine farmer cheese (or ricotta) and pesto.
  12. Spoon meat sauce into the cavities of each pepper, dividing it evenly between the peppers.
  13. Top meat sauce with pesto cheese mixture, dividing it evenly between the peppers.
  14. Sprinkle mozzarella on top, dividing it evenly between the peppers.
  15. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the filling is warmed through and the peppers are tender-crisp.
  16. Let sit for about 5 minutes.
  17. Garnish with grated Parmesan and parsley and enjoy!

Equipment

Notes

  • Salt moderately throughout the cooking process! Season to taste frequently while your making these peppers. It will do a lot to boost the overall flavor of this stuffed pepper recipe since it contains such simple ingredients.
  • You may not use all the filling depending on what size your peppers are. If they're smaller peppers, you may have some filling leftover. You can either pile it on the peppers or serve it with some leftover pasta for another simple meal.

Nutrition

Find it online: https://midwestfoodieblog.com/italian-stuffed-peppers/