Stuffed peppers with minced meat and rice in a tomato sauce Istrian Recipe
This Balkan dish made of peppers, stuffed with a mix of minced meat and rice and cooked or baked in a rich tomato sauce is very rustic, unpretentious, hearty and traditionally made during summer months, end of summer and early autumn.
Yes, there are a few steps to this recipe, but it is very simple to make and there is absolutely nothing complicated about it.
Stuffed peppers is a dish that is common in many cuisines around the world and generally consists of peppers getting halved or hollowed and then stuffed with a variety of different fillings such as meat, rice, vegetables, cheese, fish etc.
This dish, with its many variations, can be found in Greece, Central and Southeast Europe, Scandinavian and Baltic countries, Guatemala, North America Eastern Mediterranean, India and Spain.
It is in Eastern Mediterranean that stuffed peppers are part of Dolma, a word of Turkish origin, meaning “something stuffed” and it indicates a family of stuffed dishes originating from Ottoman Cuisine. The Ottoman Empire directly administered a vast territory, and eventually reached the Balkans and the area not far from the Istrian peninsula, where I come from, and this is why they strongly shaped the local cuisine.
As a result of this historical influence, there is no surprise that in the whole of Slovenia and in coastal Istria, stuffed peppers, known as Filana paprika or Polnjena paprika become integral part of the local diet and can be found on the menus informal family run restaurants, and it is one of the most frequently made dishes in many households.
I like to call this dish “a generational dish” since it is very much loved across different generations in the family, so when stuffed peppers are on the menu, everyone leaves the table happy.
Stuffed peppers are traditionally served with plenty of creamy mashed potatoes or just a lot of rice and bread. What is not to like about this dish?
Everyone in the family makes delicious stuffed peppers but this dish tastes super special and extra delicious when my brother cooks them. They are most often made a day in advance so all the flavours can fully develop and then gently reheat it. This is when they taste at their best.
I am sharing here my brother's recipe for stuffed peppers baked in the oven.
Ingredients
Serves 4-8 (depending if you are serving one or two stuffed peppers per person)
7-9 bell peppers, mixed colour or use just the ones that you prefer. The number of the peppers will depend on their size and also on the size of the dish you will use for this recipe and into which they need to fit. I used 8 medium size mixed peppers. (Babura type of peppers is a variety of peppers most commonly used for this recipe).
400g mince beef
400 mince pork
100g rice, any risotto type rice like Arborio, Vialone Nano, Carnaroli will work well
bigger size onion (about 170g), finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
black pepper, finely ground
Sauce
2 tinned finely chopped tomatoes (2x400g), the best quality you can afford
medium size onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
few fresh basil leaves
sea salt
Method
Before starting this recipe, I suggest you do a little test to see how many peppers will you actually need. Take the ovenproof dish you intend to bake the stuffed peppers in and see how many peppers will fit in it.
For this recipe you can use a deep baking tray and cover stuffed peppers with an aluminium foil.
Start by making a simple tomato sauce. Put extra virgin olive oil in a pan, add finely chopped onions, a pinch of salt and fry on a gentle heat until the onions become soft. Add crushed garlic and fry gently together with the onions just for a minute or so. Add tinned tomatoes, few fresh basil leaves, bring to the boil, turn the heat down, partially cover with the lid and gently simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. By this time, the sauce should have a nice rich velvety consistency.
Prepare and clean the peppers. Cut off the top part and remove white little seeds from inside the peppers. Rinse the outside and the inside of the peppers with cold running water. Dry the peppers a bit with a kitchen towel or kitchen paper.
Take a griddle pan (if you have it, otherwise non stick pan will work just fine) and heat it until very hot. Place the peppers in a pan and charcoal grill them on all sides. The skin of the peppers will burst slightly and turn a bit black giving the peppers a slightly smoky flavour. Cool the peppers and set aside.
Charcoal grilling the peppers first will really give and extra dimension in terms of the flavour to the dish, however, you can skip this step.
Cook the rice, following the instruction on the packet, but only halfway through. This will avoid the rice to become too mushy in the stuffing. Rinse in a small colander, cool and keep aside.
Put extra virgin olive oil in a pan, add finely chopped onions, a pinch of salt and fry on a gentle heat until the onions become soft. Add crushed garlic and fry gently together with the onions just for a minute or so. Place mince beef and mince pork in a pan and fry until brown, stirring occasionally. With the back of wooden spoon break bigger lumps of meat. Taste and adjust the seasoning with sea salt and finely ground black pepper. Cool a bit and set aside.
Transfer cooked rice and browned mince meat in a big mixing bowl. Mix well and set aside.
Transfer the tomato sauce in a ovenproof dish.
Turn the oven on and preheat it to 180C static or equivalent.
With the help of a spoon, fill each pepper with meat and rice mixture. With the back of the spoon press the mixture down as you go along, this will allow you to get more mixture in a pepper.
Place each filled pepper in the ovenproof dish filled with tomato sauce.
Cover with the lid and bake for 2 hours. Check occasionally giving a dish a gentle shake.
Just a thought
If you are left with meat and rice mixture you can use it in frittata or make scrambled eggs with it and there is another meal sorted.
You can store stuffed peppers for few days in an airtight container and they also freeze very well.