Stuffed peppers in a Roman pot

Ingredients for 5 servings:

• 5 bell peppers
• 500 g minced meat, mixed
• 1 can of tomatoes
• some couscous
• Beef broth (instant, jar, etc.)
• 250 g sheep’s cheese, please do not use cow’s feta
• 1 small can of olives
• 1 onion(s)
• 2 garlic cloves
• salt and pepper
• cumin
• coriander
• Paprika powder, sweet

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes

a variant with minced meat, couscous, olives and feta cheese filling

First, place the canned tomatoes in a pot, squash in two cloves of garlic, and add about 100 ml of the beef broth. Simmer the whole thing in an uncovered pot over medium heat for about 30 minutes. Season the sauce with salt, pepper, sugar, and herbs to taste. The earthenware pot must be soaked in water for at least 10 minutes. Remove the stems from the peppers. Then carefully remove the cores. A hole should be left at the top, not too large. Dice the onion and mix with the ground beef. Season with pepper, cumin, coriander, and paprika. Please do not add salt, as the other ingredients are very salty. Next, add some couscous and a little broth to the ground beef and knead it together. I do this by feel and see how much the couscous swells. After a few minutes, I repeat the process, depending on how much couscous I want to add to the ground beef. I didn’t weigh the ingredients; these are just estimates. After about 10-15 minutes of resting, the mince mixture should be soft but not mushy. Then add the feta cheese, crushed with a fork, and the olives, finely sliced. I use about 20 olives, but you can vary this to your taste. Now fill the peppers with the mixture. Then pour the tomato sauce into the earthenware pot, add the peppers, and place the pot, with the lid closed, in a cold oven. Then preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius (425 degrees Fahrenheit). The dish takes about 1 1/4 hours. I left the lid closed the entire time. If you want a brown crust and less sauce, you can remove the lid after 40 minutes. Keep checking to make sure nothing burns. We served it with freshly baked whole-grain bread. Enjoy!