Italian Stuffed Pork Bell-peppers

Since this meal is one of the traditional main courses in the Slavic community, I’ve probably have tried at least a hundred different types of stuffed bell-pepper recipes in my life-time. I simply love this meal course, so I’ve created my very own style. These stuffed bell-peppers are saucy, full of flavor, a tad spicy, and most importantly, it’s easier to prepare then you would think!

Start with sautéing the onions with olive oil on medium-high fire until slight brown. Add in the pork, minced garlic, shredded carrot, sardines. Then add in the seasonings, vegetable broth, water, minced tomato. Mix altogether with slightly under-cooked rice.
I like using the yellow bell-peppers for this meal-course, just because it is the most noticeable of all colors to the human eye, which attracts your appetite. And in my opinion, the yellow bell-peppers are the most flavorful from the rest of the colors, it’s not too bitter nor sweet.
In my family, we add sour cream to almost everything! So if you’re a sour cream freak like I am, I guarantee you, adding sour cream to your stuffed bell-pepper will make this a much more flavorful experience for you!

course: MAIN COURSE

cuisine: ITALIAN/RUSSIAN/UKRAINIAN

servings: 6 SERVINGS

INGREDIENTS

  • 0.5 lbs. Pork
  • 1 cup Rice
  • 1 tbsp Cayenne 
  • 1 tsp Black Pepper
  • 1 tbsp Salt (add more if needed)
  • 2/3 cups Vegetable Broth
  • 2/3 cups Water
  • 4 tbsp Tomato Paste
  • 2 tbsp Sardines
  • 1 tsp Lemon Pepper
  • 2 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
  • 1 tsp Oyster Sauce
  • 1 tbsp Red Curry Paste
  • ½ large Onion
  • 1 large Carrot
  • 1 tbsp Minced Garlic
  • 3 tbsp Lemon Juice
  • 3 tbsp Ketchup
  • 1 tsp Garlic Powder
  • ½ tsp Onion Powder
  • ½ large Tomato
  • 4 tbsp Olive Oil (add more if needed)
  • ½ tsp Red Pepper Flakes (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Boil 1 cup of water in a small/medium pot, add in 1 cup of rice, and cook on low-medium fire until slightly under-cooked.  
  2. In a medium sized pan, sauté the minced onion in olive oil in medium-high fire until slight brown. Add in the minced garlic, shredded carrot, pork, and gradually mix for a few minutes until the ground pork turns from a red to a whitish color. Add in sardines, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, oyster sauce, tomato paste, red curry paste, lemon pepper, Cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes (optional), minced tomato, minced ginger, ketchup, salt, black pepper, water, and vegetable broth (whew, I know this a lot but the combination of all these ingredients makes the taste exquisite!). Mix altogether for about 7-8 minutes on medium fire. Combine the slightly under-cooked rice, and let it sit for about 10 minutes on low fire.
  3. Stuff the rice stuffing into cleaned out bell-peppers, and place standing upwards in a baking dish. Place a foil cover the baking dish before placing in the oven.
  4. Preheat oven to 385 degrees F. Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until the rice stuffing is fully cooked. To check if fully cooked, try a little bit of the rice stuffing off the top of one of the bell-peppers, if rice is still a bit hard, continue cooking. Each oven is different so results and timing might be slightly different.
  5. Serve warm with sour cream (optional).
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