These spicy stuffed mini peppers are flavourful Spanish tapas that you can prepare ahead and pop into the oven just before serving time.
Bursting with the flavours of Spain, these Spicy Stuffed Mini Peppers make a fun appetizer for any time of year. At first glance, the list of ingredients simply looks strange and you probably can't imagine that these flavours would work together, but they do! Olives, tomatoes, golden raisins, saffron, garlic and anchovies--wait!
Don't click away--the anchovies are certainly optional (just add a few more olives instead to make it vegetarian) but they really do add a wonderful layer of flavour to these tapas bites.
We devoured these stuffed mini peppers in tapas bars during our recent trip to Spain and I was determined to figure out how to make them at home.
Ina Garten to the rescue!
I have adapted her recipe for Spanish Tapas Peppers and used mini bell peppers but you could use quartered regular peppers too. The peppers are sweet (even more so when roasted), the filling is salty and this combination makes surprisingly tasty spicy tapas.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- In a small saucepan, combine the sherry or sweet wine and raisins, bring to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated. Drain the liquid, discard, and set the raisins aside.
- Cut the peppers in half through the core, remove the stem, seeds and ribs. Lay skin side down on a baking sheet and sprinkle the insides with 1 teaspoon salt.
- In a medium bowl, combine the raisins, garlic, olives, anchovies, tomato, saffron, bread crumbs, oil, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Fill the pepper halves.
- Bake at 375° for about 20 minutes or until filling is a little crispy and the peppers are slightly soft.
Hot Spanish nights call for spicy stuffed peppers tapas!
📖 Recipe
Spicy Stuffed Mini Peppers
Ingredients
- ½ cup sherry, Marsala or other sweet wine
- ½ cup golden raisins
- 12 sweet mini bell peppers
- 2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- ¾ cup chopped green pitted olives
- 8 oil-packed anchovy fillets, optional, but very good and not overpowering, drained and minced
- 1 large tomato, seeded and diced
- 1 teaspoon saffron threads, crumbled
- ⅔ cup coarse fresh baguette bread crumbs
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- In a small saucepan, combine the sherry or sweet wine and raisins, bring to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated. Drain the liquid, discard, and set the raisins aside.
- Cut the peppers in half through the core, remove the stem, seeds and ribs. Lay skin side down on a baking sheet and sprinkle the insides with 1 teaspoon salt.
- In a medium bowl, combine the raisins, garlic, olives, anchovies, tomato, saffron, bread crumbs, oil, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Fill the pepper halves.
- Bake at 375° for about 20 minutes or until filling is a little crispy and the peppers are slightly soft.
Leave a comment