About This Blog

This is, as the title indicates, my kitchen notebook (the header is actually a scanned image of the cover of a notebook that I started using about 25 years ago and the background is a stained page from that book). I am not a professional recipe writer. If you try any recipe here, please keep that in mind, these recipes have not been tested by an independent tester. The "recipes" are often not even really recipes but rather a list of ingredients that I've noted after preparing a dish on the fly that I thought came out well. Perhaps I've also added some instructions, but I rarely keep accurate track of what I've done in terms of time or temperature, I've just noted to the best of my memory (feeble) what I did.

Please feel free to take some inspiration from here, but on the other hand, please give credit where it is due. I also welcome any constructive comments that you might have if you are inspired to try a recipe. Questions are welcome, but keep in mind that I may not remember specifics. The dishes do evolve over time...

Thank you and enjoy!

Roasted Peppers Stuffed with Ricotta and Spinach

Too many peppers this year! 70 plants, what on earth was I thinking. I've been preserving many of them but there's still loads of them so now I need to dream up ways of eating more of them now. So here's one dish that I whipped up for dinner recently that got rave reviews from Dave so I knew I needed to write it up because I won't remember how to make it again the next time he wants it.

Blanched chard can be substituted for the spinach. Sautéed chopped onions can be substituted for the dried onion. (I used dried onion for the sake of expediency). Chopped fresh sage or sage cooked in brown butter should be a nice addition to the filling. Or onion and sage sautéed together in butter or olive oil should be good too. Hmm, and since I just wrote a post about corn chicos, some presoaked chicos might be tasty too.

12 ounces ricotta, preferably sheepmilk
2 ounces freshly grated parmesan
1/4 ounce dried sweet onion, chopped (no need to rehydrate)
1/2 teaspoon mild pepper flakes
Freshly grated nutmeg
5 ounces blanched spinach measured after squeezing out excess moisture, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt (or more, I'm watching my salt intake these days)
9 or more roasted sweet peppers such as Ajvarski
Olive oil
Dry coarse breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Lightly oil a 8 x 12-inch oval gratin dish or equivalent sized baking dish.

Mix together the ricotta, parmesan, dried onion, pepper flakes, nutmeg, spinach, and salt.

Leave the roasted peppers intact but slit down one side so that they open like a book. Place a couple of tablespoons or so of the ricotta filling on one side of a pepper and fold the other side over to cover the filling. Repeat for the rest of the peppers using all the filling. Place the peppers in the baking dish with the seams to the side. Pack the peppers tightly into the dish so there are no gaps between the peppers, this keeps the filling from oozing out.

Scatter the dried breadcrumbs generously over the top of the peppers and then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, until the dish is bubbling merrily all around the edges. Let sit for at least a few minutes or longer before serving.

Makes 3 to 4 main course servings or more as an appetizer.


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