Italian sausage stuffed banana peppers

Warning-picture heavy tutorial ahead.

7 medium to large-sized banana peppers

1 pound bulk Italian sweet sausage

2 cloves of garlic-crushed

1 large can of diced tomatoes

1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper

pinch of red pepper flakes

few sprigs of fresh oregano-strip leaves from the stem and leave whole

Set oven to 350 degrees. Start a pot of water to boil, large enough to hold the peppers. Cut the tops off of the peppers.

 Clean the seeds and membranes out of the peppers. A spoon or paring knife will work.

 When the water is boiling, par-boil the peppers for 5 minutes. Cool in a colander or run under some cool water until you can handle them. (Someone forgot to wear her apron and is already getting messy.)

Like the sneak peek at the yellow walls?

 In a medium bowl mix the can of diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, 1/4 cup of the cheese, a pinch of pepper flakes, crushed garlic, and the oregano leaves.  Mix and spread in the bottom of a baking dish.

To the sausage add 1/4 cup of the cheese and one clove of garlic and a pinch of the red pepper flakes. Mix gently but thoroughly.  Stuff peppers with sausage mixture.

 I found it easier to roll the sausage meat to a tapered shape to fit into the pepper. Don’t shove it in or you’ll split the pepper which I did to one of them. Add stuffed peppers and any remaining sausage to the dish. Cover and cook for about 45-60 minutes until the sausage is cooked and the peppers are soft.

Here is the dish before it went into the oven.

I think next time I’ll add in an egg for a binder. I don’t have an after picture since we sat down to eat rather quickly and I forgot.