An Italian stuffed pepper with sausage on the grill is a great summer meal especially when you combine the peppers with a tomato basil sauce. This recipe for Italian Frying Peppers uses fresh produce of the summer months and is a great example of a non traditional recipe that can be grilled.
What is a Cubanalle Pepper?
The cubanalle pepper is also know as the Italian Frying Pepper. It’s not considered a hot pepper, but it does have a slight amount of heat. The cubanalle pepper is more of a sweet pepper that is used for a variety of dishes. Because the pepper is a few inches long and about two inches wide at the top of the pepper and then slowly tapers they are great for stuffing. However, they are also used as the name suggests frying up whole. A lot of folks slice them up as well.
What do you stuff in the Peppers?
I like to stuff a fine grind of Italian sweet sausage and cooked onions in frying peppers. However, you can get creative with the types of stuffing you use. Certainly, hot sausage, ground lamb, or breadcrumbs with parmesan cheese are all fine examples of tasty stuffing for cubanalle peppers.
How do you make stuffed Italian Peppers?
First step is cook the sausage and onions in a iron skillet. After they have been browned take off the heat and let cool. Then in a food processor grind the mixture to a fine texture. Next step is remove the tops of the peppers and take out the seeds. Once the peppers are hollowed out start to stuff. The cubnalle peppers are long and skinny so you will need a long spatula handle to help push the meat mixture down to the bottom of the pepper.
Why not throw the peppers in the oven?
Once stuffed, the peppers are ready for the grill. Sure you can put them in the oven, but that’s not my preference. Peppers are at their peak in the summer and slow roasting in the oven is not for me in the middle of the summer months.
Heat the grill up to 300 degrees F. Place the peppers on the grills away from the heat. Slow roast them for an hour and 15 minutes or until the peppers are soft.
What goes with Italian stuffed peppers?
Whenever you stuff peppers with sausage, tomatoes are a great flavor to add to the dish. For this stuffed pepper recipe, I’m adding basil tomato sauce. Summer is a great time of year for these ingredients.
How do you make tomato basil sauce?
Chop 6 plum tomatoes and slice two cloves of garlic. Heat a skillet and add 4 tablespoons of olive oil and garlic. Only cook the garlic and oil for 3 minutes. You don’t want the garlic to burn and turn bitter. Next add the chopped tomatoes, dried basil, salt, and sugar. Cook down for an additional 5 minutes. Take off the heat and add a handful of chopped basil.
Time to plate the stuffed frying peppers! Place the tomato basil sauce on a serving plate. Then lay the peppers over the sauce. Finish the plate off with a balsamic drizzle. I think an Italian stuffed pepper will really hit the spot on a summer night!
Ingredients
- 5 Frying Peppers
- 1.5 pds of italian sweet sausage
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 medium yellow onion
- For tomato sauce
- 6 Plum Tomatoes
- 2 Garlic Cloves
- Handful of Fresh Basil
Instructions
Heat grill to 400 degrees
Place ground sausage into cast iron skillet over direct heat on the grill
Fully brown sausage and remove from skillet
Leave pan drippings and add chopped onion and garlic
Brown mixture for two minutes and take off heat.
Let cool and combine with sausage
Once cool place in food processor and mince to fine grind
Push mixture into peppers
Heat grill to 325 degrees
Place peppers directly on grill grates away from direct heat. Slow roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes
Place peppers over tomato basil sauce
Finish dish with balsamic glaze drizzle.
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