RECIPE – Italian Stuffed Peppers w/ Bread, Anchovies & Basil
by Henry Gould – June 24th, 2020
These are amazing. Really no other way to put it. Dead simple to make, and allows lots of room for tweaking to your taste. Can be made as a light main course, or a side to something else.
Don’t like anchovies? Leave ’em out – but you probably won’t notice them that much. They sort of melt and create a lovely savory background flavor. You can also use a nice can of tuna packed in olive oil (Rio Mare brand is great).
These peppers are great warm out of the oven, but also very good cold or at room temperature.
Italian Stuffed Peppers w/ Bread, Anchovies & Basil
- 2 large red bell peppers
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 4 slices sourdough bread, chopped into small cubes
- 1 handful fresh basil leaves
- 5 anchovy filets, chopped (or 1 x can of Rio Mare tuna)
- 2 roma tomatoes, chopped
- 1 tablespoon capers, drained
- 1 small handful of kalamata olives, chopped
- 1 pinch dried chili flakes
- Grate pecorino romano cheese
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Black pepper
Preheat your oven to 400F. Cut each pepper in half from top to bottom, ideally through the steam so each half has some stem. Scoop out all the seeds and white ribs. Drizzle a little olive oil on a sheet pan or ovenproof baking dish and put the peppers in, open side facing up.
In a large bowl, add all the other ingredients together. Drizzle over some olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly with your hands to that everything gets coated. If it seems too dry, add some more olive oil.
In each pepper half, stuff generously with the bread mixture, packing it in to fit. If there’s extra stuffing after each pepper is full, you can put it on the bottom of the pan and arrange the peppers on top.
Put in the 400F oven for ~30 minutes until nicely golden brown.
Enjoy hot, cold or room temperature!