Nanny’s Italian Bread-Stuffed Peppers
Nanny’s Italian Bread-Stuffed Peppers is a recipe passed down through generations. These have a delicious bread stuffing inside tender baked bell peppers.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour 30 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 5-6 peppers 1x
- Category: entree
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 5-6 green bell peppers, see note
- 1/2 pound Italian bread, crusts removed, cut into small pieces
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 1/2 cups golden raisins
- 2 whole eggs, slightly beaten
- 3/4 cup Romano cheese, grated, plus more for serving
- 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
- 2 1/2 cups tomato sauce, divided
- 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
Instructions
- Cut tops off of peppers and remove all seeds and ribs, set aside.
- Place bread in a large bowl and cover with milk, making sure the bread gets all soaked. Let sit 10 minutes.
- With your hands or a wooden spoon, mash bread and milk to form a thick wet mash.
- Add raisins, eggs, cheese, bread crumbs, ½ cup of the tomato sauce, garlic powder, Italian seasoning and black pepper and mix to combine.
- Spoon a tablespoon of oil in each pepper and swirl around, then place a tablespoon of sauce in the bottom of each cavity.
- Divide the filling between the peppers, loosely packed.
- Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat and add all but two tablespoons of the olive oil to the pan.
- Once hot, place peppers into oil on their sides and over 25-30 minutes, cook and turn until all of the skin has been browned, including the bottoms.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a casserole dish large enough to hold the peppers, place a cup of tomato sauce on the bottom and as each pepper is browned, place face up into the prepared casserole dish.
- Drizzle about a teaspoon of olive oil over each and top with the remaining sauce.
- Cover with parchment and foil and bake for one hour.
- Serve immediately with additional tomato sauce and grated Romano cheese.
Notes
When selecting your green bell peppers for this recipe, try to select smaller peppers with smooth sides and no large ribs. If small, the stuffing will fill six, if medium-sized, it will fill five. Try to avoid the very large bell peppers.
