Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
- This is a traditional Croatian recipe for stuffed peppers in tomato sauce (punjene paprike) cooked on the stove.
- Preparing stuffed peppers is relatively simple and won’t take much time. You can double the quantities specified in the recipe and freeze the excess. Through this post, I will explain the easiest way to do it.
The first peppers in the garden are eagerly awaited every summer, just like the first ripe tomatoes, some of which must end up in homemade tomato ketchup.
Grandma used to bring the most beautiful and fragrant yellow bell peppers collected in her old, worn apron. When she gathered enough of them, she always made a full pot of stuffed peppers in silky tomato sauce. No matter how hot the summer was, we always had punjene paprike on our table once in a while, especially on Sundays.
While I am writing this, my grandmother is really sick. She can no longer prepare it, so let this recipe of hers remain a reminder to me, and to you who are reading this, of a carefree childhood, hot Slavonian summers, and the simplicity of home cooking.
Ingredients For Stuffed Peppers In Tomato Sauce
- Peppers – it is best to choose yellow bell peppers (babure) for making Croatian stuffed peppers. Its meat is neither too thin nor too thick, which makes it ideal for longer cooking. Personally, I prefer medium-sized peppers, preferably about the same size so that they cook evenly. If the peppers have any tiny damage, save them for another dish. For this recipe, we need the most beautiful peppers.
- Minced meat – I usually use minced meat consisting of 50% pork and 50% beef, but you can go with up to 70% beef, which you can replace with veal, too. In any case, as with Croatian sarma, I avoid using only pork, because the final dish can become too heavy.
- Rice – it is not necessary to cook it beforehand, but you can fry it briefly in a little fat before adding it to the filling.
- Onion and garlic – chop them as finely as possible.
- Egg – binds other ingredients together, but you can skip it if you want the meat filling to be lighter.
- Bacon – will add fullness of flavor to the meat, smoky aroma, and additional saltiness. Choose bacon as meaty as possible and cut it into tiny pieces. You can also use bacon skin in this dish; cook it together with stuffed peppers in tomato soup.
- Breadcrumbs – for binding all the ingredients and making the stuffed peppers filling softer.
- Spices – only black pepper, sweet, and hot paprika powder are used in this recipe. Some people also add fresh parsley. Stuffed peppers, in my opinion, should not be spicy, but a small amount of hot paprika powder will balance other flavors.
- Lard and flour– we use it for making the roux. Instead of lard, use some neutral oil, like sunflower oil.
- Tomato passata and water – with this recipe, you will get a slightly larger amount of tomato soup in which the peppers will be cooked. It is important to note that it is not the same whether you use homemade tomato passata or store-bought passata; purchased versions are often much thicker and more sour, so the soup itself will need to be balanced with a little brown sugar. Homemade tomato soups are more water (at least, here in Croatia), so the soup itself will be like that in the end. You can get around this if you increase the amount of the roux if you add a few tablespoons of tomato concentrate, or if you reduce the amount of water.
- Salt and sugar – you need salt for the meat filling and for the tomato soup in which the stuffed peppers will be cooked. Some people like their punjene paprike to be saltier, some less salty, so I recommend that you put as much salt as you prefer. In the recipe, I wrote the exact amount of salt that I put; my family prefers slightly saltier stuffed peppers.
How To Prepare Croatian Stuffed Peppers
Check out the recipe card at the end of this post. It has the exact amounts of ingredients and detailed recipe instructions!
1. STEP: Remove the stems and seeds
Wash the peppers, let them dry, and cut a small opening around the stem with a sharp, pairing knife. After that, remove the rest of the seeds and white pith.
2. STEP: Make a meat filling
In a large bowl, add all the ingredients for the filling and gently work the filling with your hands or a spoon. You can add 2 tablespoons of sparkling water to the meat filling to make the meat juicier and softer.
3. STEP: Prepare the tomato-based soup
In a large pot, make the roux by melting the lard and adding flour; stir until light yellow, then gradually add the tomato passata. Stir constantly. Add some water and salt and cover until the soup begins to boil. Put the stuffed peppers in the pot, cover, and let them cook on low heat for 1 to 1.5 hours.
4. STEP: Cook until soft and serve
Cook the stuffed peppers until they soften, but they mustn’t start to fall apart. While cooking, check the taste of the soup; add salt, if necessary, and add more water if there is not enough liquid.
How to Serve Stuffed Peppers In Tomato Sauce
Croatian stuffed peppers require a very simple side dish, and these are the most common:
- Easy Homemade Mashed Potatoes
- Homemade Bread
- Restani krumpir
Reheating And Freezing Tips
Just like stuffed cabbage rolls, stuffed peppers are easy and simple to freeze for those days when you know you just won’t have time to cook. This is especially practical in the summer when we don’t feel like standing next to the stove every day.
Simply transfer the excess cooked stuffed peppers to freezer containers together with the tomato sauce. Leave them open to cool completely, and then tightly close the lid, write the date of freezing, and put them in the freezer.
I try to use frozen stuffed peppers within 2 months of freezing.
As for reheating, always reheat only those stuffed peppers that you know will be eaten for sure.
The day before, transfer the container with frozen stuffed peppers to a refrigerator. The next day, transfer the peppers to a pot, cover, and heat until the blop-blop sound of a gentle boil. It is always better to heat them for a little longer at a lower temperature than the other way around.
Serve with a side dish of your choice and that’s it.
Dobar tek!
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Croatian Stuffed Peppers In Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
For stuffed peppers:
- 12-14 yellow bell peppers middle size
- 500 g minced meat 50% pork and 50% beef
- 1 red onion middle size
- 1 garlic clove
- 40 g white rice uncooked
- 40 g breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- 60 g bacon
- 10 g salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika powder
- ½ teaspoon hot paprika powder
For tomato-based sauce:
- 1,5-2 tablespoon lard
- 1,5-2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 liter tomato passata
- 1,5-2 liter tap water
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar if necessary
Instructions
- Wash the peppers, let them dry, and cut a small opening around the stem with a sharp, pairing knife. After that, remove the rest of the seeds and white pith.
- In a large bowl, add all the ingredients for the filling and gently mix the filling with your hands or a spoon. You can add 2 tablespoons of sparkling water to make the meat juicier and softer. Fill each pepper to about 3/4, so that there is a little space to the opening where the stem was. If they are overfilled, they break more easily and the filling can fall out.
- In a large pot, make the roux by melting the lard and adding flour; stir until light yellow, then gradually add the tomato passata. Stir constantly.
- Add some water and salt and cover until the soup begins to boil. Put the stuffed peppers in the pot, cover, and let them cook on low heat for 1 to 1.5 hours.
- Toward the end of cooking, check the taste of the soup and if it seems too sour, add some brown sugar and stir well.
- Serve with creamy mashed potatoes or homemade bread. Dobar tek!
Notes
- Before cooking, the stuffed peppers can be briefly fried on all sides in a little fat in a pan for an even more pronounced flavor.
- You can add a few tablespoons of sparkling water to the mixture for stuffed peppers to make the filling softer when cooked.
Nutrition
Nutritional information provided is an estimate based on ingredients data and should be used for informational purposes only. Actual nutritional content may vary based on factors such as portion size, preparation methods and ingredients used.
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