Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers
Growing up, I assumed that stuffed peppers were always meatless. In my family, we used an old recipe from my great-grandfather who came from Sicily. The recipe for the filling was simply stale bread, eggs, parmesan and parsley. Later on though, I learned that my family’s version of the dish was the oddball recipe and that all of my friends, who also had Sicilian relatives, stuffed their peppers with rice, meat and cheese.
What makes Italian-American food uniquely American is the generous servings of meat and cheese. Many Italians who migrated here were poor, and though funds were still tight even on this side of the Atlantic, they had access to ingredients they couldn’t get their hands on in the old country. Meats and cheeses that signified wealth back home were available to them in America. It’s why so many Italian-American staples are loaded up with mozzarella, provolone, and Parmigiano-Reggiano and why some families serve tomato sauce with both sausage and meatballs in it.
Recipes aren’t just reflections of our culture or our personal preferences. Sometimes they tell the story of social class, of struggle, of migration, of needing to make ends meet, but ultimately they tell a tale of resilience. When we cook our family recipes, their stories persist — they live on through us.
My family’s stuffed pepper recipe was just as traditional as other family recipes. Our stale bread take on the classic dish was a remnant of a time when our Sicilian relatives had to make do with what little they had. And though times changed and they could get their hands on ground beef and sausage, they just kept making stuffed peppers the way they were used to — as a means of using up stale bread and not letting anything go to waste.
This recipe can be intuitive and depends on the size of the peppers you’re using, how well the bread absorbs moisture, and other factors. So be sure to change according to how firm or gooey you want your filling to be. If you feel the filling is too wet, add more bread, if it’s too dry, maybe add a little water (another egg may be too much).
Ingredients
5 cups of stale bread ripped into small pieces
3 large bell peppers
2 eggs
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
tomato sauce
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl mix stale bread with eggs, garlic, parmesan cheese and parsley. Mix until the ingredients so that the bread absorbs some of the moisture from the eggs but isn’t completely saturated. The mixture should be firm and the bread should still maintain some of its texture. Set mixture aside.
Cut the tops of the bell pepper off and remove the seeds. Set the tops aside. Stuff the peppers with the bread mixture.
Add some sauce to the bottom of a baking dish or dutch oven. Place stuffed peppers in the dish, open side up. Place the tops of the peppers over the filling.
Cover with lid or with tin foil and cook at 350°F for 30 to 40 minutes, or until peppers begin to soften and their skin wrinkles a little bit.
Serve with some tomato sauce and meats on the side.
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