Stuffed Hot Cherry Peppers

These peppers were a favorite of Tom's mother, Maria Liguori Sienkewicz, for holidays and any special occasions.

Remove stems and most of the seeds from the cherry peppers. The more seeds left, the hotter the peppers.

Traditionally these are stuffed with meat but we have also developed a good vegetarian alternative.

Meat stuffing
1 lb. chopped beef
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
grated paremsan cheese to taste
Fresh chopped parsley (or dried parsley) to taste

Mix ingredients together/ Add enough bread crumbs until the mixture can be formed into balls.

Vegetarian Stuffing
Follow meat stuffing recipe but add one additional egg and replace meat with more bread crumbs.
Put a cube of feta cheese in the bottom of the pepper before stuffing.

Fill each pepper with enough stuffing to make a round crown on the top of the pepper.

Fry peppers in olive oil until lightly brown on all sides.
Any leftover stuffing can be formed into little balls and fried in the remaining oil.

Put stuffed peppers in a casserole bowl and bake at 250 degrees for at least 1/2 hour.

Best eaten cold.