Hi guys, I'm Laura Vitale and on this episode of Laura in the Kitchen, I'm going to show
you how to make some delicious and easy - what I like to call my pizza stuffed peppers, so
they're so, so good, such a good family, comforting yummy dinner, and it's going to be using some
leftover stuffing that I've got so I'm thrilled to share it with you because if you are somebody
that's going to be making traditional stuffing for your Thanksgiving table or your holiday
table, then you can use the leftovers in this recipe!
Make sure that your stuffing doesn't have dried fruits and nuts and things like that
in it, I mean I guess you could just add it to this but I just think that plain stuffing
tastes best, so let me run you through the list of ingredients because it's really not
that big but they're all the right ones.
You need some ground beef, it's a really great recipe to make ground beef really stretch
for a lot of people, this is my leftover stuffing, it's crumbly it's cold and it's tasteless
so it's going to be perfect here!
Lots of chopped up pepperoni, I've got my marinara sauce here, a little marinara sauce,
a pinch of dried oregano, lots of chopped parsley, onion, garlic, an egg, I've got parmigiano,
bell peppers that I have cleaned, cut in half and scooped out any seeds.
And you're also going to need some pizza cheese, I like to use a combo of mozzarella and provolone,
some different brands make something called 'pizza cheese', 'pizza blend', so whatever
you want use that.
What I have here is a large casserole dish that I have lined with a good amount of marinara
sauce, because this is going to be the flavor base for everything.
So let's get started, super easy, you're going to add pretty much everything in.
Your stuffing, your pepperoni, now the great thing about this is that this makes a lot
of stuffed peppers.
It makes 8 halves.
Which I think one half is perfect per person, because they're quite hearty, so it makes
a pound of ground beef go really far, so it's a nice way to use a little bit of meat to
feed a lot of people, get your parsley, and now what I'm going to do is I'm going to grate
my parmigiano and the onion and garlic right in because I'm not going to be cooking ahead
of time, because I really think that if you grate it it's just going to melt into the
cheese and the meat and as it cooks in the oven it cooks all the way through, but if
you're going to just dice it then just give them a stir with a little bit of olive oil
on the skillet and cook them up a little bit before you add them here otherwise they retain
too much crunch.
But I'm just going to go ahead and grate this with my microplane, and it's going to melt
in there and be delicious!
Alright, so I added everything in, grated onion, grated garlic, the egg, the cheese,
I added a pinch of salt - everything's in here, and now using a cook's best tool, clean
hands, go ahead and mix it all together.
And let me just tell you, you talk about flavor, you talk about delicious home cooking, it
does not get much better than this!
I'm telling you!
And I call them pizza stuffed peppers because of the pepperoni and the oregano and the cheese,
it does end up tasting like a pepperoni pizza which is why I love it!
So, I'm just going to mix everything up really well and then we're going to get going on
stuffing the peppers.
My peppers are all in and now I'm just going to stuff them with my stuffing and look at
that we took Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving flavored dressing - or some people call it dressing,
some people call it stuffing.
And we went ahead and made some Italian stuffed peppers.
That's the thing you know, you really just have to think a little bit out of the box
and I've said this before when it comes to leftovers, I like my leftover turkey sandwich
the next day, with Brie, cranberry sauce, I just need to have it, that's just my thing.
After that, I want nothing that tastes like Thanksgiving food.
So I just take the leftovers and I make different things with it that taste like a completely
different cuisine.
So I know a lot of other people are like that as well, I know that a lot of people in my
family are like that so that's why I think these kinds of recipes really come in handy.
Alright so I'm just going to stuff my peppers, I'm almost done, and what I'm going to do
is I'm going to cover these with some aluminum foil, I'm going to pop these into my oven
pre-heated at 350F and they're going to be in there for about 45 minutes.
After the 45 minutes, because there's no point in showing you this it would be a waste of
time, after the 45 minutes, I'm going to remove the foil, top with cheese, pop them back in
for 15 minutes or so and I will show you what they look like when they are complete and
they are going to be magnificent and I can't wait to serve them with you.
So my peppers were in the oven for about 40 minutes, covered, and I took the foil off,
I put the cheese on and I slid them back in without the foil for about 15 to 20 minutes
until the top was golden and the cheese was bubbly, I just took these out about, I don't
know, a few minutes ago, so I'm going to give myself one to try because if you could just
smell the aroma in here, you'd understand why I'm not going to wait any longer.
I might risk really burning myself, but it is a risk that mamma is willing to take!
Let me get in here, oh it smells so good!
Yum!
Yum!!
Yum!
I kind of deconstruct the whole thing when I eat stuffed peppers.
My mouth is salivating!
It's going to be hot though, so I'm going to need a minute.
Mmm!
Hot!
So, so so delicious!
My eyes are watering because it's so hot!
Full of flavor, definitely get that pizza vibe with the pepperoni, and the oregano,
it's just fantastic, there's not a remnant of Thanksgiving in here.
Even though my stuffing does contain celery, onion, poultry seasoning, a little butter,
you don't get any of that, because that's the point whenever I am using leftover classic
stuffing is to add it to things that are strong enough to kind of hide all of those flavors.
Things like garlic and onions and sauce and peppers, it kind of gets rid of all of those
flavors and becomes the dominant boss, because that's what those flavors do.
So I hope that you give the leftover stuffing a try by adding it to different things as
a binder, which I'm telling you is the best thing to do with it and nobody will know,
and these peppers are worthy of being on your family kitchen table, probably tonight, so
go to LauraintheKitchen.com, get the recipe, I hope you have enjoyed spending time with
me and I'll see you next time.
Bye!