Stuffed and Grilled Cubanelle Peppers

In the summer I love to use fresh produce as much as I can and in as many things as I can. A while back some friends of mine showed me this really simple, yet really satisfying dish that quickly became one of my favorite things to do on the grill while using fresh picked peppers.

Aside from being simple and delicious, this is a hugely versatile dish. The variations on it are endless. What I’ve done here is just use pepperoni and mozzarella cheese to stuff these peppers, but really you can use anything. Taco meat and cheddar, steak and bleu cheese (or provolone for a Philly spin on things), and even stuffing with other grilled vegetables and feta or goat cheese would work well.

I started with a bunch of Cubanelle peppers, which seem to work best. Other peppers, like poblanos, may work just as well; just remember to get a pepper that is long and/or has a fairly open shape with few bends in it. The shape of the pepper determines how easily you can fill them. Remove the tops of the pepper, clean the ribs and seeds and you’re ready to start filling.

When filling the peppers, I’ve tried two different methods as shown in the picture above. I tried using shredded cheese which works well, but can be messy while filling and more prone to running out of the finished pepper once it melts. The other method is to use string cheese. Simply unwrap, and put one or two sticks into the pepper. The string cheese seems to be less runny when it melts, so it also results in a cleaner cooking surface. Other than the cheese, I used pepperoni which is really nothing remarkable.

After the peppers are stuffed, place them on the grill over medium heat until the pepper softens and starts to collapse. Since there are really no raw ingredients here, cooking these is simply a matter of melting cheese and getting the pepper to the texture that you like. If you like the pepper to be less or more charred, adjust the heat accordingly. Once the peppers are cooked to your liking, pull them off and serve with a sauce that compliments your filling; in this case I went with marinara sauce to dip.

-Dave