Dolce & Gabbana Eat your Heart Out! Peperoni Ripieni Aromatici- Mozzarella Filled Peppers

 

Christmas seems just a distant memory. As I look out of the window,  a ray of sunshine over the frozen lawn and pond and the loud sound of birds singing, fill me with hope. Spring must be round the corner... I need light, I need colour and I need warmth and hope.

I went out and bought some "happy" food: tiny, sweet little peppers, in warm colours, ranging from bright red to yellow, a jar of big capers in vinegar and two deliciously milky white mozzarelle. I needed to fill the house with the smell of happy times, the warmth of eternal love and colour!

 

Colourful food to cheer me up

So, I made dish that my mother used to make, using beautiful, big, thin fleshed yellow, peppers, sweet tenders peppers which smelt of Summer and love.

I used six quite small peppers for my dish, but the recipe can be adapted ( 3 large peppers cut into halves, instead, to make six portions... nothing needs to be measured... just feel and taste the food!)

The aroma of dish dish is incredible, and so is the taste. Dolce & Gabbana, eat your heart out!

Peperoni Ripeni Aromatici

Delicious  Mozzarella Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

6 small peppers

or 3 medium sized ones

1 white bread roll

1 egg

grated Pecorino Romano or

Parmigiano Cheese

small bunch of fresh Italian parsley

1 egg

1 mozzarella

2 cloves garlic

some capers in vinegar

six or seven cherry tomatoes

(can use tinned instead)

olive oil

salt

black pepper

Preheat oven ( 200 C, 400F, Gas 6 )

Before you start, wash or wipe your peppers and cut each of then in half, lengthways. Discard stalk and seeds.

Cover the bottom of an oven proof earthenware dish with some oil, add one finely chopped clove of garlic, some grated cheese, three or four chopped cherry tomatoes, some parsley, salt and pepper, and reserve until later.

In a small bowl, soak your bread roll in water or milk. Once softened, squeeze most of the liquid out and add: 1 finely chopped garlic clove, 1 egg, some grated cheese, salt, pepper and your mozzarella, cut into smallish pieces. Mix all the ingredients, add some chopped fresh parsley, and... here's your stuffing!

1) ingredients for stuffing 2) the stuffing is ready 3) olive oil at the base of my oven dish

My peppers were really quite small, so I used just one tbsp of stuffing to fill each of the halves. If you are using big peppers, you'll need more- the stuffing is so easy to make, so if you need more... make more of it! (And please... don't fill peppers with rice, it's so heavy, unrefined and just not nice!)

Once the peppers are filled, place them in the oven dish, over the olive oil, garlic, cheese and the rest of the ingredients I listed before. Now... all you need to do is place a small piece of tomato (you can use tinned) over each pepper and sprinkle a generous spoonfull of capers all over the dish, followed by an equally generous sprinkling of cheese, all over the peppers, followed by some olive oil. Add half a glass of water to the base, to make a sauce, and bake until golden.

My peppers before and after baking

I had mine with a lovely mixed peppery salad with poppy seeds and some Italian taralli.

Olive Oil Taralli are fantastic!

 But...  a bread roll or some delicious crusty bread would allow you to soak up and enjoy the delicious juices at the bottom of plate.

And "Here's one I made earlierl!"

BUON APPETITO!