Serves 2
■ 20g (¾oz) rice (dry weight)
■ 1 tbsp vegetable oil
■ 1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
■ 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
■ Either 125g (4½oz) pork mince
■ Or 125g (4½oz) Quorn mince plus 1 tsp vegetable stock powder
■ 1 egg
■ 2 sprigs of marjoram, finely chopped
■ Leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme
■ Salt and freshly ground black pepper
■ 4 medium bell peppers
■ 300g (10½oz) ripe tomatoes, diced
■ 1 tbsp tomato puree
■ 85ml (3floz) red wine
Stuffed peppers in tomato sauce
1. Parboil the rice, draining it when it is about five minutes short of cooked.
2. Heat the oil in a frying pan and saute the onion and garlic for five minutes.
3. Put half of the fried onion and garlic into a bowl. Add the rice, the mince, the stock powder if you are
using it, the egg, the marjoram, half of the thyme leaves, a good pinch of salt and a generous grinding of black pepper. Mix everything together well.
4. Cut out the stalks of the peppers, and use a teaspoon to scrape out the seeds. Pack the peppers with the stuffing mixture.
5. Find a lidded saucepan big enough to accommodate the peppers standing upright (then take them out again for now). Put the rest of the fried onion and garlic into the pan, add the tomatoes and simmer them gently for 10 minutes.
6. Add the tomato puree, the wine, the rest of the thyme leaves, a grinding of black pepper and 85ml (3floz) of water to the pan, and stir them in.
7. Sit the peppers in the pan and bring the sauce back to simmering point. Cover the pan and let it simmer for about 40 minutes, by which time the peppers will be tender and the stuffing cooked.