Molly Cookie

Stuffed hot peppers with roasted red pepper and tomato sauce

Jul 29, 2010 Appetizers, Food Things, Pastas and Sauces

Reader beware: consuming hot peppers with this delicious filling and sauce creates the powerful and hard to resist “addicting-spicy”. This is when something is spicy but delicious at the same time, and you are physically unable to stop eating the spicy food. Your hands simply will not stop grabbing the fork and lifting it to your mouth. The disease has not yet known to be fatal, but is sure to last until the last bite has been consumed.

Consider yourselves warned.

Peach week is over, although the peaches are not all gone. I froze some and plan to use them for something fun soon. After all the cool peach desserts, I decided it was time for something hot.

I decided on stuffed peppers, and I will say that this was the best appetizer I’ve had in a while. We used several different types of peppers and each one tasted great with this filling and sauce. The sauce is wonderful because it’s a little sweet, and compliments the spicy peppers and cheese wonderfully. I liked using more than one type of pepper, because I wasn’t stuck with one level of spiciness the entire time. It was nice to take a bite of a spicy pepper then back off a little bit with one of the less spicy varieties, then back to spicy. Using one type of pepper limits the fun.

If you are going to use just one type though, I would have to suggest jalapenos. They brought the perfect level of heat to compete with the sweet sauce and cheese filling. They were definitely my favorite.

Watch out though, they’re still pretty spicy.

Stuffed Hot Peppers with Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Sauce, adapted from Bobby Flay’s recipe here.

This recipe makes enough to fill several jalapeno peppers and other small peppers. We probably could have filled about 40 if we wanted to.

Ingredients

Several Jalapeno Peppers or other hot peppers from your garden, sliced in half lengthwise with the stem and seeds removed.

For the Filling:
8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
4 oz goat cheese at room temperature
1/4 cup grated sharp white cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped

For the Sauce:
1 red pepper
1 tomato
2 tbs red wine vinegar
1 tbs honey
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
fresh ground black pepper

Directions

For the filling:

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion starts to become soft, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Combine the cream cheese, goat cheese, and white cheddar cheese using an electric mixer. Add the onion and mix until combined. Add the pepper and continue to mix until smooth. Fill each pepper half with a small spoonful of the cheese mixture and set on a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake the peppers until the cheese starts to brown slightly, approximately 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and serve with sauce.

For the Sauce:

Place red pepper and tomato in the oven under a broiler and cook, turning occasionally, until the skin turns black on the pepper and becomes brown and wrinkled on the tomato. Remove from oven and place the pepper and tomato in a bowl under a clean dish towel or about 10 minutes to allow them to cool enough to handle. Once they are cooled, remove the skins and seeds from each, chop, and place in a food processor along with the rest of the ingredients. Process until smooth. Spoon a small amount of sauce over or alongside each pepper.

Tags: baked peppers, bobby flay stuffed peppers, stuffed jalapenos, stuffed peppers