Two Recipes in One

Two Recipes in One

Chunky Fresh Tomato Sauce and Cheesy Stuffed Peppers

Once again, Saturday meant a walk to the farmer’s market. This time of year, it is full of treasures as all of our favorites become fresh in season. Our cute flowered basket couldn’t contain all of our purchases. It was a long three blocks to get home with both kid and mom weighed down. We are excited to share some of what we made with our finds. First, we made chunky fresh tomato sauce. We enjoyed it on pasta the first day and then used the leftovers for our cheesy stuffed peppers. Often you see stuffed peppers with rice. However, that can often make them dry so the rice was replaced with fresh ricotta cheese. It was a delicious substitution.  We hope you enjoy these dishes as much as we do!

Chunky Fresh Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

2 lbs. fresh tomatoes (the riper, the better)

1 head garlic diced (yes, a whole head and not just a clove)

½ c. fresh basil torn into small pieces

1 c. fresh oregano

1 T. olive oil

2 dashes of salt

Directions:

1. Boil a large pot of water. 
2. Cut an X into the bottom of each tomato.
3. Fill a big bowl with ice water.
4. Put tomatoes into boiling water for 1-2 minutes until skin starts to peel and then quickly move to ice water. You may have to do this in batches if your pot or bowl are not big enough to accommodate all tomatoes at once.
5. Peel tomatoes; discard peels.
6. Chop tomatoes into one inch pieces; as you chop, put them into a bowl keeping all tomato juice with tomatoes.
7. In another large pot, heat olive oil and then add garlic, sauté until garlic is soft.
8. Add herbs, tomatoes, and salt.
9. Cook on low heat uncovered, 2 hours or longer, stirring occasionally. The longer this is kept cooking, the bolder the flavors.

Cheesy Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

6-8 small bell peppers

1 lb. ground beef

1 c. ricotta cheese

½ c. Italian bread crumbs

Tomato sauce from recipe above or one jar

½ lb. fresh mozzarella

Directions:

1. Cut off tops of peppers and clean. Set aside
2. In a bowl, combine beef, ricotta, 1/2c. tomato sauce, and bread crumbs. Mix well.
3. Heat oven to 350 F.
4. Coat bottom of a baking dish with enough sauce to make a thin layer on the bottom.
5. Stand peppers in baking dish and stuff with meat mixture.
6. Top peppers with a spoonful of tomato sauce.
7. Top each pepper with a slice of mozzarella.
8. Bake 30 minutes.
9. Heat remaining sauce and serve to spoon over peppers.