Stuffed Pepper Grilled Cheese

There are some stories that are just infamous in every family. The time gramma read your love letters, the time mom walked through the screen door and, for me, the time my husband told me my stuffed peppers weren’t how his mom used to make them. (I’m sure it’s payback for the years of razzing my mom about the screen door.)

To be fair, they were really weird. The used chicken breast chunks instead of beef and cheezy rice instead of red sauce. They were nothing like the classic.

This recipe lands a bit closer.

For National Grilled Cheese Day (TODAY!), I’m taking the classic stuffed pepper recipe and turning it into a grilled cheese. Can we say NOM?

Stuffed Pepper Grilled Cheese
yields 2 sandwiches
¼ lb ground beef, cooked and crumbled
⅔ cup long grain white rice, cooked
1 cup marinara sauce
1 bell pepper, halved and seeded
olive oil
4 slices texas toast
2-4 slices fontina
1 ½ cups mozzarella
butter

Turn your broiler to Low.

On a broiling pan, place your pepper halves cut-side-down. Drizzle with olive oil. Broil for 6-8 minutes until skin begins to blacken. Remove and let cool.

In a bowl, combine rice, beef and marinara sauce.

Once pepper is cool, slice into thick chunks.

Begin to assemble your sandwich. Lay out your bread and cover two of the pieces with fontina. Continue by scooping half of the sauce, rice and meat onto each of the cheese-covered slices of bread. Top with bell pepper chunks, and then mozzarella.

Close the sandwich and butter the bread, both sides.

Cook over medium heat for about 4 minutes per side, or until bread is brown and crispy and cheese is  melty.

If your sandwich seems unmanageable, feel free to compress with a an iron bacon press or a large can of tomatoes, wrapped in foil.

Remove from heat and let cool a couple of minutes. Slice and serve.