Bell Peppers with Breadcrumbs

The recipe for bell peppers with breadcrumbs is a traditional dish from Southern Italy, particularly from the cuisine of Puglia and Calabria. It is a tasty and rustic way to prepare peppers. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 4 bell peppers (mixed colors for a cheerful presentation)
• 200 g of stale bread crumbs
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Dried oregano to taste
• Salted capers (optional)
• Anchovies in oil (optional): 5 fillets
• Black olives (optional): a handful
• Salt to taste
• Extra virgin olive oil to taste

Preparation

1. Wash the peppers, cut them in half or into quarters, and remove the seeds and white inner filaments.
2. In a frying pan, sauté the chopped garlic in extra virgin olive oil. Once golden, remove it and add the crumbled bread crumbs.
3. Toast the breadcrumbs, stirring often, until they become crispy and golden. At this point, you can add capers rinsed from salt, chopped black olives, and broken-up anchovies if using them. Also, add a pinch of dried oregano.
4. Place the peppers in a baking dish, season them lightly with salt, and stuff each piece with the flavored bread crumbs.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C (356 °F) for about 20-30 minutes or until the peppers are soft and the surface is slightly crisp.
6. Serve the peppers hot or at room temperature, as an appetizer or side dish.

Curiosity

Bread crumbs are a widely used ingredient in Southern Italian cuisine, and besides enriching peppers, they are used for stuffing vegetables and even in pasta dishes. Stale bread is never wasted but transformed into a culinary resource.

Remember that cooking is flexible, so feel free to add fresh aromatic herbs to further enrich the flavor or to modify the seasonings according to your tastes.