Give this American comfort food classic an Italian-American twist with ground beef, Parmesan, basil, and tomato sauce.

　　

Ingredients

Serves 4

　　

The filling:

1 pound ground beef, browned

　　1 tablespoon minced garlic

　　1 cup fine bread crumbs

　　1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

　　4 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

　　3 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped

　　1 cup fresh tomatoes, precooked (or canned tomatoes)

　　2 eggs

　　4 tablespoons olive oil

　　

To assemble:

8 medium peppers, stemmed, cored, and seeded

　　1 tablespoon olive oil for drizzling over peppers before baking

　　1 cup tomato sauce

　　

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

　　

Step 2

Combine the beef with all the other filling ingredients, then stuff the peppers all the way to the top. It’s fine if the peppers bulge a bit.

　　

Step 3

Stand the peppers on end in a casserole dish and drizzle the olive oil over them. Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 375°F and pour the tomato sauce around them. Continue baking until the peppers brown, about 30 minutes. Bring to the table in the casserole dish and serve.

　　A Tip From Pia

　　Mom sometimes made these with rice in the mixture. It makes the dish a bit heartier.

　　From Cooking With My Sisters © 2017 by Adriana Trigiani and Mary Yolanda Trigiani. Reprinted with permission by Harper Paperbacks, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.Buy the full book from HarperCollins or from Amazon.