I found a unique recipe for stuffed green peppers at Allrecipes.com, in which the precooking of the meat significantly shortened the typical baking time. That should result in higher moisture content and tenderness for the stuffing. It sure did! When I tested the recipe I really liked it. Then I made a few nice improvements. Those changes are reflected in the recipe below.
I must, however, confess that one idea shown in this recipe I stole from my daughter. She uses Ragu® Light spaghetti sauce instead of tomato sauce. The light version avoids sugar, which is not appropriate in the savory stuffed peppers dish. Both the Ragu® Light Sauce and the tomato sauce are very good but the choice is yours to make. If you can't find the Ragu® product then you may choose to purchase a different brand of plain spaghetti sauce that does not contain sugar or anything else as a sweetener. Check the ingredients list to know if the sauce is an appropriate choice.
Now I get to a real departure from typical stuffed green pepper recipes. The big change is to avoid overbaking the green peppers so they still have some substance and better color (and taste). This is accomplished by reducing the typical baking time and by starting with raw green bell peppers, which works because the other ingredients, except for the cheese and the second can of tomato sauce (or the Ragu® or other sauce), are precooked. The peppers in the real dish looked much better than the ones in the picture shown with this recipe.
All the folks who have tried this dish love it. Well, enjoy ... we certainly do.
Ingredients: (serves four adults)
Directions:
Halve the green bell peppers lengthwise. Cut out the white membrane and the stem and rinse the seeds out.
Shake any residual water out of the halved green peppers and place them open side up in a 9"x13" glass baking dish.
Bring the water or beef broth to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the rice and stir. Add the (optional) sriracha sauce, which flavors the rice nicely without later causing the stuffed peppers seasoning to be too hot.
Move the saucepan to the smallest burner on the stove, set the heat to very low and cover the saucepan with a lid. Simmer the rice for anywhere from 12 to 22 minutes depending on the type of rice you use. Remove the saucepan from the heat and leave it covered.
Preheat the oven to 350º F.
Brown the ground beef and the sausage in a large, deep skillet or a dutch oven, over medium heat, and then drain any rendered fat (if any) from it. If you used 90% lean ground beef you won't have any rendered fat to discard.
Mix in the diced onion, diced garlic, salt and pepper and continue cooking on low heat for five minutes.
Pour in one can of the tomato sauce (or two cups of the Ragu® Light or other spaghetti sauce) and mix thoroughly. Add the cooked rice and mix well. Let the mixture simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes, covered. Remove the skillet/dutch oven from the heat.
Spoon the meat and rice mixture, heaping, into/onto each half of the green peppers. If you have extra stuffing then simply fit it into openings around the green peppers. Pour the second can of tomato sauce, or the remainder of the jar of Ragu® Light or other spaghetti sauce, evenly over the mixture/peppers.
Bake the stuffed peppers in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, then check the peppers for doneness. The idea is you don't want them to become soft and mushy and dull olive colored. If necessary you can bake them for an additional 10 minutes. Less baking time equals better color and texture and taste.
Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese (or other grated cheeses) over the top of each stuffed pepper. Return the peppers to the oven and bake them for an additional 5 to 10 minutes ... just long enough to melt the cheese.
Serve hot. Expect applause. You might also serve a nice oven warmed loaf of Italian or French bread, along with butter. Most any beverage will be fine as long as it is cold. The meal is very filling so a chilled fruit salad makes a fine light dessert.