Spend Saturday on Arthur Avenue, then Sunday in the kitchen with Rossella
Our Shopping & Tasting Tour replicates the Saturday shopping ritual practiced on Arthur Avenue for generations. As you weave in and out of the delis, bread bakeries, and the Arthur Avenue Retail Market, we offer you tastes of the best bites in the neighborhood. Have you ever had mozzarella made just minutes before by hand? How about house-cured salumi, or crusty bread still warm from the oven? The only thing better than Saturday shopping on Arthur Avenue is Sunday when you wake up to an Italian-American cornucopia of delicious food in your kitchen.
We'll guide you through Saturday shopping while our friend Rossella Rago is your beacon on Sunday. Her latest cookbook Cooking With Nonna: Sunday Dinners with La Famiglia compiles easy, delicious, and classic dinners sure to provoke nostalgia for some and tons of new ideas for others.
Rossella has included the classic Sunday ragù and a more advanced short rib ragù for those looking to up their sauce game. The book includes Italian-American baked clams, pork chops, and vinegar peppers, and a recipe for cavatelli with broccoli that should become part of your weeknight dinner rotation. She also dedicates an entire chapter to cocktails, from the Aperol Spritz to a Blood Orange Sangria!
Stuffed peppers are easy-to-make and crowd-pleasing and can be served as a main course or a side dish. The same stuffing could also be used with zucchini, eggplant, or bell peppers so it works with whatever vegetable is in season.
Here's the recipe, along with our recommendations on where to find the best ingredients for this dish on Arthur Avenue.
Sausage and Provolone Stuffed Long Hot Peppers
From Cooking with Nonna: Sunday Dinners with La Famiglia
Makes 12 servings
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to coat the pan for drizzling
1/2 pound hot or sweet Italian sausage, casings removed (Vincent's Meat Market)
1/4 cup dry white wine (Arthur Cantina)
5 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (Teitel Brothers
1/2 cup grated sharp Provolone, plus more for topping (Also, Teitel's)
1/4 plain bread crumbs (Addeo Bakers)
1 large egg, beaten (Biancardi's has the best farm fresh eggs!)
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
6 green Italian long hot peppers, cut in half and de-seeded (Boiano's)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat an 18 x 13 - inch baking sheet with olive oil. IN a large skillet heat the oil on medium-high. Add the sausage and cook until browned, about 5-7 minutes. Add the wine and cook for 1 minute. Transfer the sausage to a mixing bowl and cool for 10 minutes.
Once the sausage has cooled, add the Parmigiano-Reggiano, Provolone, bread crumbs, egg, parsley, salt, and black pepper. Mix until combined. Place the peppers cut side up on the oiled baking sheet. Fill each pepper with the sausage mixture, top with grated Provolone and drizzle with olive oil.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the peppers are tender and the topping has browned.