Ingredients
Scale
- 2 colorful (red, orange, yellow) bell peppers, chosen so they will lay flat when cut in half top to bottom
- ½ cup golden raisins
- 2 tbsp brined capers
- 4 oil-packed anchovies
- 10 basil leaves
- 4 ripe plum tomatoes
- ¾ cup panko breadcrumbs
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Prepare the stuffing. Select a medium bowl to hold the stuffing.
- Place the raisins in a small separate bowl and cover with boiling water. Let sit for at least 15 minutes or until they are cool enough to handle. Drain and squeeze out any water. Rough chop and place in the stuffing bowl.
- Drain the capers, rough chop and add to the stuffing bowl. Rough chop the anchovies and add to bowl. Stack and slice the basil leaves into ribbons and add to bowl. Slice and chop the tomatoes into small chunks and add to bowl.
- Finally, add the breadcrumbs and cheese to bowl. Mix together and taste. Add salt and pepper as you like or more of any individual ingredient. Add a tbsp of olive oil to moisten the mixture; toss to combine.
- Prepare the peppers. Select a baking dish to hold the pepper halves.
- Slice each pepper in half top to bottom so that each pepper half will lay flat in the baking dish. Clean out the seeds and the membranes. Trim away the white mass that is just under the stem. Rinse out each half and lay each half cut side down on a towel to dry.
- When dry, hold each pepper half over the bowl with the stuffing, stuff the peppers with the prepared mixture filing in the corners of the pepper but don’t pack the peppers. Place each pepper in the baking dish. At this point, you can cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate until later for baking (up to 3 days).
- Preheat oven to 400℉. Drizzle a little olive oil over each pepper. Add a few tbsps water to the baking dish to create steam. Grease the underside of a piece of foil with olive oil using a pastry brush or a paper towel.
- Cover the dish holding the peppers and seal tightly. Bake for 30 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes to brown the peppers.
- Serve hot, room temperature or cold. If you are going to refrigerate the peppers for later, allow them to cool to room temp before placing in the refrigerator.