When I was a kid, that meant ground meat in a tomato-based sauce. It was simple, hearty, but heavy. My variation is a vegetarian recipe for DB~. My least favorite food are mushrooms, at least in their whole state. Used in a sauce, they're not bad, so I decided to do a rich mushroom sauce for my girl.
First I cooked some Arborio rice just as the straight recipe, not as a risotto. It was still creamy when done. While still warm, I added some dry cranberries in an effort to re-hydrate them a little bit. I added some feta, dry basil leaves, salt/pepper, and a little chicken broth to keep it all moist.
While the Arborio was cooking, I started the mushroom sauce. I first melted down a couple of tablespoons of butter, then added two cloves of garlic and sauteed them down. I added a dash of pepper and then a cup and a half of diced mushrooms. Once that mix was softened, I added a cup of chicken stock and cooked on medium-low heat for 10 minutes. At the end, I added a couple of tbsp of more butter to make it rich.
Once the sauce was done, I spooned it over the stuffed peppers (which were split in half and laying on their sides). In the 8 x 8 baking dish, once the peppers were packed in, I added some more chicken stock around the peppers to keep them moist in the oven. I baked them for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.
In the middle, I did some sauteed zucchini with an Italian herb seasoning. Even though mushrooms grow in the dark and are fungi, I actually like them in a sauce, especially when they make DB~ happy.
