Big Mike's Greek Roasted Stuffed Peppers

This is from my cousin's husband who is an outstanding cook:


Big Mike's Greek Roasted Stuffed Peppers



Everyone has a stuffed pepper recipe. I borrowed the concept of mine from Ellie's Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers. After making it, posting the results getting some feedback from friends and family I modified it and the results were outstanding. The biggest thing I changed was to roast the peppers before stuffing them. I like the peppers to be softer than the original recipe made and I love the extra flavor from the roasting process. I also added lamb to the meat mixture. I mean, hey, this is supposed to be a Greek recipe, right? It doesn't matter if you make red or green peppers, you'll love this recipe.



Ingredients
:
1/2 pound lean ground beef

1/2 pound ground lamb

1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 medium zucchini, coarsely grated (about 2 cups)

1 small onion, minced (about 1 cup)

3/4 cup white rice (cooked)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3 large red or green bell peppers, halved lengthwise, cores and ribs removed

2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans stewed tomatoes

3/4 cup good marinara sauce

1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese



Directions

Cut and core the peppers, then place them on a roasting pan open side down and broil them in the oven for 5-10 minutes (until they are scorched a bit and softened).

You can do this on the top burners of your stove also, I prefer doing them all at once in the broiler.

Remove from broiler and let cool.



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.



In a large bowl combine the beef, lamb, spinach, zucchini, onion, rice, egg, oregano, salt and a few grinds of pepper. Mix until thoroughly combined.



In another bowl combine the stewed tomatoes and marinara sauce and mash with a potato masher until the tomatoes are broken into smaller pieces.



Arrange the pepper halves cut side up in a 9 by 13-inch baking dish and fill each pepper half with the meat mixture. Pour the tomato marinara mix over the peppers. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until the meat mixture is completely cooked and the peppers are tender, about 25 minutes longer.

Sprinkle with the feta cheese and serve.