Sausage Stuffed Long Hots
October bumper crop of Long Hots turns into May Spring Fling!
There is nothing better than a stuffed pepper of any kind, grin.
My inspiration for this recipe comes from a dear friend of mine. We are high-school buddies. He, his wife and I both graduated the same year. He’s a fabulous home cook. We both enjoy hot peppers; pickled, stuffed, sautéed with some kind of protein on the wood stove in the winter, you have it. Last fall, we were at a friends and family gathering and he was sharing with me how he travels to another town, picks up special sausage and stuffs hot cherry peppers - then freezes them for their winter guy’s weekend. I was intrigued.
Bumper Crop Long Hots
It just so happened to be that I had a bumper crop of Long Hots - from my husband’s barber. He gifted me several bushels. I was on a kick of canning them for sandwich peppers, which btw were delicious. I still had many leftover. I thought, why couldn’t I turn these into stuffed peppers and preserve them for our winter gatherings.
I ran to the store and picked up my favorite sausage (which is Basilio-Buda Sausage), parmesan and mozzarella cheeses. That’s it. It was so easy to make. He added tomato sauce, I chose not to, as I felt the tomato sauce might not go with the Long Hots.
I baked some that evening, picture below - they were divine, a little spicy and mildly cheesy. I then froze the rest unbaked for another day. That day was Friday, May 3rd at camp. I needed a no fuss, easy meal. It was truly delightful. I am thrilled to be able to write about this simple, yet delicious meal or side-kick or appetizer, you name it, you can do it.
Sausage Stuffed Long Hots
Serves how many peppers you have, 2 peppers per person - I just ate 4, don’t judge, grin.
Ingredients *amount in directions
Sausage - your favorite (my fav Basilio-Buda, Canasta, NY)
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (I used low moisture, part-skim)
Freshly Graded Parmesan Cheese
Long Hot Peppers
Directions
* I used 4 pounds of sausage, 16 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese, and 1/4 cup of freshly graded parmesan cheese, to about 30 Long Hots. I froze 2 batch’s of 10-12 peppers and baked 8 peppers for that night’s dinner.
With that said, if you were going to do a small batch - lets say 8-10 peppers, I would recommend 1 pound of sausage, 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese and 4 tablespoons of freshly grated parmesan cheese. You want the sausage to shine. Reserve some mozzarella for the top.
Mix your sausage with the mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. To prepare your Long Hot peppers for stuffing, lay your Long Hot flat on a cutting board, hold the stem and with a sharp knife cut a slit just under the stem - left to right - half way across the pepper, then come back to the center of the pepper and cut length-wise down. You are essentially making a “T” in the pepper. Then remove the seeds and cut the stem off. Stuff the peppers, stretching the sides to get a good amount of sausage/cheese mixture inside without tearing the pepper, picture below.
If you are going to eat now: bake 350 degrees for 30-minutes, to 160-170 degrees internal temperature. Mine were close to 170-180 degrees, I like my food more well done.
To freeze for later: freeze raw, place in a freezer safe tin pan, cover with several layers of tin foil, and label. My tin pan came with a nice foil/paper topping. You will label the top with, (I like to use a black marker) - with instruction to cook at 350 degrees, place frozen directly to oven. Bake for 30-minutes covered, then uncover for 15-minutes. Mine did get a little juicy, this is not a worry, I just carefully pulled the pan out of the oven and drained off the liquid, then put directly back in the oven to finish cooking.
Enjoy 😉. Wendy’s Kitchen is always free, my gift to you, it’s what I love to do. I am always appreciative of a cup of joe or tea, while I write.
Let Go and Let God. I believe wonderful moments begin to happen when you do.
Penny for your thoughts…
God bless you and yours, until we meet again,
Wendy.
This looks so good, my taste buds are tingling just thinking of how they taste. Adding this to my ‘must make’ list!
Thank you Mark!