This summer was my first time growing a vegetable garden. I used this year as my chance to try growing a little bit of everything. From tomatoes to snap peas and watermelon, I had no expectations. One highly successful crop was my banana peppers. I quickly realized one critical error in them though--we don't really eat banana peppers! I picked them whenever they were ready to go, rinsed them and started tossing them in a big freezer bag.
When I decided to head to a tailgating themed recipe exchange with my local women's group, I knew I had finally found a use for the banana peppers. I dug around online and ended up taking bits and pieces of other recipes to come up with my own.
12-14 medium banana peppers
1/2 lb hot or mild Italian sausage (I used hot turkey sausage)
1/2 lb lean ground beef or turkey (I used turkey)
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to taste
Brown sausage and ground meat with onions and green peppers. Season to taste with pepper, salt and Italian seasoning. Let mixture cool. Beat egg in bowl and add to cooled sausage mixture, bread crumbs and parmesan cheese.
Preheat over to 375 degrees.
Cut tops off of banana peppers and use a spoon or butter knife to scrape seeds out. Stuff with sausage mixture. Place stuffed peppers into a casserole dish generously coated with olive oil. Bake 30 to 35 minutes.
Note: I sprinkled additional cheese and breadcrumbs and put the dish under the broiler for 2 minutes to give them a nice golden crust.
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