Dear reader,
Have you ever caught yourself dreaming while preparing food and making a mistake while doing so? Don’t tell me I am the only one, the only food lunatic out there loosing my thoughts around a topic, and incidentally not realizing that I was suppose to only cut the top side of the peppers. Facepalm! I could have just gotten new capsicums or prepared something else, but luckily my food preparation faux-pas wasn’t that much of a catastrophe when I clicked the pictures for these ricotta stuffed peppers.
I had come across ricotta stuffed peppers in a french food magazine back in summer, maxi cuisine nr. 8 2014 to be exact. Back then I ended up throwing in different ingredients for the stuffing and to be honest I never got to recreate the exact recipe from the magazine, which by the way included anchovies, but I did make my version of the ricotta stuffed peppers a few times as a fun appetizer.
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I know, I barely followed the ingredients listed in the magazine, yet I did follow the cooking procedure which includes steaming the peppers first. The peppers get softer after a tight 10 minute steam bath, the veggie’s flavors are less intense and the peppers absorb some of the bamboo basket’s and the cabbage’s “aroma”. So, try to steam the peppers and don’t skip this step. It’s hardly any extra work anyway.
In Goa you can buy fresh quality ricotta in the major super markets around the coastline and small red bell peppers can be even bought in the local Mapusa market. I know that you get these ingredients too in the major Indian cities so it shouldn’t be a problem for my Indian friends to recreate this at home.
When I made these stuffed bell peppers in Austria, me and my mum had trouble coming across small pepper. There are huge ones in the stores but not the small “button” kind of bell peppers and even our garden was producing only the bigger varieties. Finally we found smaller bell peppers, however they were elongated as you can see in the picture, so when you make this try to find the smallest peppers you can find. The smaller, the more fun the ricotta stuffed bell peppers taste and the more convenient they will be when you serve the peppers as an appetizers to your guests.
- 6 red Bell Pepper (Capsicum
- 250 grams Ricotta Cheese
- 30 grams Cheddar Cheese
- 40 grams or a dozen sliced green or black Olives
- pinch Salt
- pinch Pepper
- ½ Teaspoon Coriander Powder
- ½ Teaspoon Cumin Powder
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- Rinse and cut open the bell pepper top, take out all the seeds and white borders in the pepper. Place the bell peppers with the bell pepper tops into a steamer and steam them soft for 10 minutes. Tip: use cabbage leafs or banana leafs under the peppers while steaming in a bamboo steamer.
- Mix the ricotta, cheddar,sliced olives, salt, pepper, coriander and cumin powder.
- Preheat oven to 210 Celsius.
- Once the peppers are steamed, tap them dry from inside with a kitchen paper to absorb excess liquids and fill all the peppers with the ricotta mixture. Drizzle the stuffed peppers with olive oil.
- Bake 20 minutes in the oven or until the peppers get a healthy grilled look.
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Scrumptious! This is a great recipe.
Cheers,
Rosa
It’s a very nouvellé idea for a starter for me. Perfect way to balance the heat of the pepper with the creamy subtleness of the ricotta. Simply loved it.
I love cheese-stuffed peppers! The addition of olives though …. brilliant.
This would be wonderful as an appetizer or served as a side with a main course. I also really like the bowl you’ve served the stuffed pepper in.
Helene, these stuffed peppers look amazing. Perfect for light dinner, or even lunch.
These sound so good, perfect app for my vegetarian sister!
You would win my heart if you served one of these to me. 🙂 What a great starter.
Happy 2015 Masala! Hope you had a fabulous holiday! I love this recipe! I have some beautiful roasted mild red chiles in the freezer that would match up wonderfully with this ricotta filling.
Delish! I love the ricotta filling.
what a great dish. i love the stuffing and it would go so perfectly with a main dish like chicken or fish.
What a great recipe! Loads of flavor, and it’s just gorgeous. Truly good stuff — thanks.
You sure made the best of your faux-pas – these peppers are exquisite!
Oooh! I love ricotta stuffed ANYTHING! I haven’t made stuffed peppers before, can you believe that! Flagging this one to be my first!
These look exquisite! I won’t be able to stop at two or five 🙂
I am always making little mistakes in the kitchen…. sometimes they work in my favor. 🙂 Love these stuffed peppers. Could pop a few away right now. 🙂
Lovely clicks…I love ricotta cheese…looks gorgeous!!
loving the gorgeous clicks and interesting recipe. would make a great appetiser.
I love ricotta! <3 These cheese stuffed peppers sound wonderful!
Oh Helene, this is just beautiful! xox
I simply cannot take my eyes out of those stuffed peppers. You choose the right peppers and right stuffing. This will be a great appetizer to please a crowd