A few ingredients, lots of flavor.
When I was creating this recipe, I wanted the stuffed peppers to be part of an afternoon snack menu and, as such, wanted them not to be large, filling dishes. For that reason I chose cubanelles as the pepper for this recipe. They’re smaller than bell peppers but also aren’t spicy like a jalapeno or serrano. Although meat is a key ingredient, I did add a good amount of veggies to keep them on the lighter side.
Served with Mexican Corn Off the Cob and some queso fundido, we had a delicious menu of snacks for a lazy Sunday afternoon at home. While I consider these stuffed peppers to be snack-sized, as opposed to entrée size, I wouldn’t rush to add them to an appetizer buffet. They are very much fork and knife items. Even for those with bigger appetites/bites, these are multiple bite peppers.
The trickiest part of this recipe might be finding bulk linguisa. So often when shopping for chorizo, linguisa, or other similar sausage, all one can find are link sausages. For this type of sausage, just removing the casing doesn’t usually provide nice crumbles. One gets chunks of meat, which can be fine for some recipes. For a stuffed pepper, you really want a meat that is broken down into little pieces, allowing the ingredients to be well mixed and the pepper to be easily cut into bite-sized pieces.
The best part of this recipe is that using linguisa as a major portion of the filling you don’t need seasoning. Seriously. I’m all about adding herbs and spices, but if you’ve found good, bulk linguisa, it does all of the work for you.
With summer starting to wind down, you probably will be able to find a wide variety of peppers at your local farm. Grab a few, and get ready for an afternoon or evening of snacking. And don’t forget the limes; these stuffed peppers pair quite nicely with a margarita on the rocks!
- 2 Italian peppers, halved lengthwise & seeds removed
- ½ cup minced red onion
- 2 cups cubed button mushrooms
- 1 cup bulk linguisa, precooked, about ⅓ pound
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Bring medium saucepan of water to a boil; add halved peppers.
- Cook peppers for 3 minutes.
- Drain.
- Heat large frying pan over medium heat.
- Coat bottom of pan with olive oil; add onion.
- Saute for 5 minutes.
- Add mushroom; saute for an additional 3 minutes
- Add linguisa, stirring and sauteeing until combined and hot, about 2-3 minutes.
- Place peppers cut side up on foil lined baking tray.
- Divide linguisa filling among the 4 pepper halves.
- Top with shredded cheddar.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
