Orzo Stuffed Peppers

I bought a 6 pack of beautiful bell peppers at Costco last week. I had four of them left and decided that it would be a great opportunity to try a new recipe! I remembered seeing Giada de Laurentis make this on an episode of Everday Italian and thought that it sounded perfect. WOW! This filling is SO good! I could (and did) eat a huge plate of it on its own. It is full of flavor from the mint. I never knew that mint could taste so good in a recipe. I also loved that it had shredded zucchini to bulk it up a bit so that it wasn't just all pasta. I decided to grill some salmon and steam some veggies to go with it. I will warn you right now, the recipe says that it stuffs six peppers, but I am certain I had enough to stuff eight. However, leftovers of the pasta alone are fantastic!

Orzo Stuffed Peppers

1 28 oz. can Italian tomatoes

2 zucchini, grated

1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves

1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano (or Parmesan cheese) plus more for sprinkling

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (1 used 2 Tbsp.)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. freshly ground pepper

4 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cups orzo

6 sweet bell peppers

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pour the tomatoes into a large bowl and break apart. Add zucchini, mint, cheese, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Meanwhile, bring the chicken broth to a boil and add orzo. Cook for 4 minutes. The orzo should only be partially cooked. Use a fine mesh sieve to drain the orzo and reserve the broth. Transfer the orzo to the large bowl with the other veggies. Stir the orzo into the veggie mixture. Transfer the warm chicken broth to a 3-quart baking dish. Slice the tops off the peppers and remove all ribs and seeds. Cut a very thin slice from the base to help the peppers stand up. Place the peppers in the baking dish with warm broth. Spoon the orzo mixture into the peppers. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil, sprinkle the top of each pepper with cheese and continue baking until the cheese is golden, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, carefully transfer the orzo stuffed peppers to a serving plate.