Grain-Free Chorizo Stuffed Peppers

Don't you just love chain emails?  You know the ones. They instruct you to share an email with 10 people if you are not ashamed of Jesus, or share an email with 10 friends and you will have good luck, but if you don't share BEWARE!! I usually don't participate in chain emails. I really think they are stupid, a waste of time, and downright annoying. That is, unless it is a recipe chain email. I am always looking for new recipes so the prospect of receiving ones that are tried and true was enticing, and I fell victim to the possibilities. I really wasn't sure if anyone would participate, but I sent out emails to 20 of my closest peeps who were supposed to email 20 of their closest peeps who were supposed to email me recipes. Confused yet? I was surprised by the response and actually received several good recipes. This "Stuffed peppers" recipe was one of them. It came from a fitness trainer on our base in Italy. Funny thing is I didn't even know her but had seen her picture around base advertising her services. She shares her Italian experiences on a blog that you can see here. 

At the time, I was fasting from grains as I was praying through an issue, so this grain-free recipe came at the perfect time. Typical stuffed pepper recipes call for rice, but this recipe uses cauliflower "rice" instead, so out of curiosity decided to give it a try. Chopping the cauliflower very finely in a food processor gives it the consistency of rice. I actually think I now prefer using it in stuff peppers instead of rice. The cauliflower is light and doesn't lead to bloating or the heavy feeling that can result from rice. I enjoyed this dish so much that I ate it for leftovers for about 3 days until it was gone. 

This recipe calls for Chorizo which is a spicy Spanish pork sausage. If you don't want to use sausage you could use lean ground beef or turkey instead.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! 

Buon Appetito!

Grain-Free Chorizo Stuffed Peppers

source: Erin Work, http://www.mi-scusi-italia.blogspot.com/

yield: 6 servings 

nutritional facts calculated using sausage, 1/2 cup of cheese, and no sour cream 

calories: 461

fat grams: 30.3

3 or 4 large bell peppers (I like to use red)
Small head of cauliflower
1lb (or 1.5lb depending on the package) chorizo sausage
Small onion, chopped
1-2 Tbsp Olive oil
14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes
salt pepper
Cheese (optional)
sour cream (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. In a food processor, chop the cauliflower to a "rice" consistency (or chop the heck out of it using a knife and cutting board).
3. Wash and cut the tops off the peppers, removing seeds and inner membranes.
4. Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat, add 1-2 Tbsp olive oil, and begin to sauté the onions. 
5. Add chorizo to the skillet and stir until meat is browned.
6. Add the cauliflower "rice" and crushed tomatoes to the skillet, cooking at an aggressive simmer for 10 minutes or until cauliflower is cooked.
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.
8. Place the hollowed bell peppers on a foil-lined baking sheet, and scoop chorizo mixture into the peppers.
9. Bake for 30 minutes, sprinkling with cheese for the last 5 minutes if desired. 
10. Serve with cheese and sour cream.

Caponata and Pork Involtini

In February I took a professional cooking course at a local cooking school. There were nine sessions and each session we prepared a full Italian meal, which consists of antipasti (appetizer), primi piatti (first plate) which is usually pasta or rice, secondi piatti (you guessed it, second plate) which is meat, contorno (side dish or salad), and dolce (dessert). We were seperated into groups and each group would prepare one of the courses. I learned alot, but obviously I didn't get to personally make all the dishes so trying to make them on my own may take some practice. We were given the recipes from each class. The only problem is that they are in Italian. So I have to translate them. Using Google translate makes things alot easier, but somethings are lost in translation and can be a little confusing.

I have really not had the time to cook the Italian dishes since alot of the ingredients I need can't be found at the Commisary on base. However, I recently decided that I was going to pick a couple of recipes a week and go shopping for the ingredients.

I did try a pesto a few months ago that we made in class and it was horrible! One of the problems was that I didn't have a food scale. Italians use the metric system and weigh their ingredients instead of using measuring cups. For instance the recipe may call for 30 grams of cheese instead of measuring out 1/4 cup of cheese. So I was trying to convert the metric measurements to our imperial measurements and it didn't work out well. After that fiasco, my husband so kindly ordered me a food scale and it has been very helpful.

I decided last week to make Eggplant Caponata, which is an antipasto. It is probably my favorite antipasto. It consists of delicious marinated vegetables. However, I was very disappointed to learn that all the vegetables are deep fried before they are simmered in the marinade. My Caponata turned out pretty good, but not perfect. It still needs some tweeking so I will not post the recipe until I am happy with the outcome. I plan to try again this week.

This is the Caponata from class:

This is my Eggplant Caponata:

As you can see it isn't quite the same. I really don't remember potatoes or olives in the original one. I think the olives were too overpowering and I didn't like the potatoes in it. 

I also decided to make Pork Involtini, which is thinly sliced pork, stuffed, and rolled. I was very pleased with how the Involtini turned out. It was so good.

Pork Involtini

Serves 4
Pork Roast 0,800 kg
Bread-Crumbs 200 g
Grated Parmasan Cheese 30 g
Garlic 30 g
Cooked Ham 100 g
Parsley 30 g
Extra Virgin Olive Oil 30 DL
Swiss Cheese 100 g
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut pork into very thin slices.

Grate bread or put in food processor and mix with the grated Parmesan, minced garlic and season with salt, pepper, parsley and enough oil so the dough is very wet.

Stuff the meat slices with a layer of bread crumb mixture, slice of ham, and some cheese.

Roll them up in the form of roll and secure with a toothpick. One tip, don't use colored toothpicks unless you want your meat to have some color! lol!

Finally pass the rolls in seasoned breadcrumb mixture and bake in the oven at 350 degrees until done. I cooked mine about 45 minutes.

They were really delicious!!

Buon Appetito!!