Recipe Bacon-wrapped Hungarian-hot peppers stuffed with cream cheese and sausage

[JAS_OH1]

Everything's better with bacon, right? Well a lot of us think so anyway, including me and my DH. I made these bacon-wrapped Hungarian-hot peppers stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese, mild Hungarian-style sausage, bread crumbs, roasted garlic, a touch of diced tomato, some diced kale, and fresh oregano from my windowsill garden. The only seasoning (no salt needed due to the bacon, sausage, and cream cheese) used was smoked paprika, which imparted a lovely dimension of flavor. The peppers were tangy, but the cream cheese and other mild flavors mellowed out the heat quite nicely. This dish would be lovely served with some rice and/or toasted baguette, but we ate them on their own. Delicious!

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour

Serving size: 2 people

Ingredients:
5 large Hungarian hot peppers (or similar)
1 - 8 oz package of cream cheese
1 lb mild Hungarian-style bulk (minced) sausage
1 - 12 oz. package of streaky bacon
3 cloves of semi-roasted garlic, minced
1 small shallot, diced
4 diced grape heirloom tomatoes (I used 2 yellow and 2 red for a color contrast)
2 sprigs of oregano, leaves removed and minced
2 TBSP of minced kale (or other green such as spinach)
3 TBSP plain bread crumbs
1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Preparation method:
Place the streaky bacon on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or foil. Bake in the oven at 300F for approximately 30 minutes to render off some of the fat, but it's important to be sure that the bacon is still flexible and not cooked crisp. Place the bacon on paper towels to drain.

While the bacon is cooking, cut the top off each pepper and make a long slit along the inner part of the curve from the top to the pointed end, pulling out the pith and seeds.

Cook the sausage on medium-low heat until thoroughly cooked. If the mince clumps together, a potato masher comes in handy to separate it into smaller pieces. Add the other ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix in the hot sausage until all of the ingredients are well combined.



Place a generous amount of stuffing mix inside of each pepper (I ended up having extra of the mixture and made a 5th pepper) and "wrap" each pepper with bacon. I used 3 slices of bacon per pepper because the peppers were quite large, and I actually did not wrap the bacon entirely around each pepper other than the first piece or it would have been too much bacon. Instead I cut a few of the bacon pieces in half and just laid them across the peppers.

Cook the peppers in the oven at 350F for 1 hour. Remove from the oven, plate, and enjoy!

 

[TastyReuben]

…and I happen to have some Hungarian sausages I need to use up.

 

[JAS_OH1]

…and I happen to have some Hungarian sausages I need to use up.

Hey why do you suppose that sausage is a blacklisted word? It's one of the main ingredients but I couldn't tag it with sausage...odd.

 

[TastyReuben]

Hey why do you suppose that sausage is a blacklisted word? It's one of the main ingredients but I couldn't tag it with sausage...odd.

Idk about the blacklisting, but I always use sausages in place of sausage; even though it’s not technically correct, it’s close enough for me.

I vaguely remember having a conversation on here a while ago about sausage versus sausages versus sausage meat, and the label “sausage” was confusing to some of the non-US-based members, because it’s not used much outside the US/North America…I think.

 

[JAS_OH1]

Idk about the blacklisting, but I always use sausages in place of sausage; even though it’s not technically correct, it’s close enough for me.

I vaguely remember having a conversation on here a while ago about sausage versus sausages versus sausage meat, and the label “sausage” was confusing to some of the non-US-based members, because it’s not used much outside the US/North America…I think.

I guess seasoned minced pork they might understand, but pretty sure it's not going to let me tag that, either. Anyhow, I will just leave it as is, because I feel like sausages are ropes/links. I am not fond of casings so I only buy bulk. And actually, this Hungarian was made by my husband and his cousins. They all like casings and hubby just doesn't bother doing that for us...since I am the one who cooks and I always remove casings (which is a PITA anyway).