Sausage Stuffed Peppadews

Sausage-Stuffed Peppadews

original recipe from Food and Wine

Ingredients

1 pound hot Italian sausages, casings removed

1/2 cup cooked white rice
2 tablespoons olive tapenade
60 yellow or red peppadew peppers (from two 14-ounce jars), drained
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Directions
Preheat the oven to 450°. In a medium bowl, knead the sausage meat with the cooked rice and olive tapenade. Fill the peppadew peppers with the meat mixture, pressing to compact it. Arrange the peppadews meat side up on a lightly oiled baking sheet; lightly press down on them so they don't wobble. Drizzle the peppadews all over with olive oil and sprinkle with the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Bake the peppadews in the upper third of the oven for about 15 minutes, until the sausage meat is cooked through. Transfer the peppadews to a platter and serve warm or at room temperature.

My Comments & Tips

• I will admit I had no idea what a peppadew was when I read this recipe.  (FYI - Peppadew is actually a trademarked brand name for sweet piquante peppers.)  I envisioned something similar to a pepperoncini.  They are quite different, they resemble cherry tomatoes (there is a yellow version too) and taste slightly sweet.  I may look for some new recipes to try these tasty peppers again!  I found them on the olive bar at my local Wegman's, both the red and the yellow variety. 
• I browned the sausage before preparing the filling, I was hoping to reduce the amount of grease in the peppers and I wasn't confident that 15 minutes would be enough time to make sure the sausage was fully cooked.
• I halved this recipe and still had almost half of the filling left after stuffing over 30 peppers.
• I had so mmuch filling leftover that I decided to stuff some pepperoncini's as well.  These had a little more zing to them but turned out good too.
• I prepared the filling and stuffed the peppers one day ahead.  They were stored in the refrigerator and brought to room temperature before I cooked them.
• I will admit, I forgot to add the parmesan cheese.  Sometimes that happens when I prepare items ahead of time.  They still tasted yummy!
• These tasted fine at room temperature.
• I used the hot sausage but I may consider using a different kind next time.  They had a little kick, but you really couldn't taste any sausage flavor.