Sausage Stuffed Peppers

I love baby bell peppers because they're so sweet and get even sweeter when they're cooked. I thought that these tiny peppers would make a great appetizer when stuffed with a sausage mixture and the bright colors would make a pretty summery presentation.

Ingredients [serves 6 to 8 people]:
12 to 16 baby bell peppers - as many as you need to use up the stuffing
1/2 lb of sausage - I used sweet basil but use what you like
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup cooked rice
1 egg (not pictured)
drizzle of olive oil

Start by grating some parmesan cheese in a large bowl and then add the rice and finely diced onion.

My package of sausage (sounds dirty!) was actually a 1 lb package so I cut it in half. Remove the sausage from the casing by making an incision into the casing and peeling it off. You could try and squeeze the sausage out of the casing but I find that too much of the meat gets left behind and it's wasteful.

Add the sausage to the bowl with the cheese, rice, and onions. Then add breadcrumbs and egg and then stir until the mixture is uniform.

To prepare the peppers, cut out the stem and pull out the seeds and ribs (though there shouldn't be much). Then stuff them full of the sausage mixture.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Then place the stuffed peppers on a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the sausage is done. I tested the done-ness by cutting the biggest pepper in half and checking for pink, or lack thereof.

YUM!

So pretty, right?