4 bell peppers

For the stuffing:

• 300g (10-1/2 oz) chopped meat (see Notes)
• 100g (3-1/2 oz) bread, without the crust, soaked in milk and/or water
• 50-75g (2-3 oz) grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley, finely minced
• Salt and pepper, to taste

For the vegetable 'bed':

• Trimmings from the bell peppers
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Olive oil
• A pinch of oregano
• Salt and pepper, to taste

For the topping:

• Breadcrumbs, and/or
• more grated Parmesan cheese
• Olive oil

Directions:

Prepping the peppers

Cut the peppers in half vertically from tail to stem. Trim out any white ribbing and the cores from the insides of the pepper halves. I like to leave the actual stem on the pepper, so as to better hold in the stuffing. (See photo in Notes below for an illustration.)

Making the Stuffing

Trim the bread of its crust and break it up into pieces Place the bread in a bowl and pour over enough milk and/or water to moisten the bread well. Let it sit for a few minutes to let the liquid penetrate.

Place the rest of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. When the bread is ready, shred it well with your hands and add it to the rest. Then—and here using your well-washed hands is the best way to go—mix everything together very well, until you have a uniform and rather soft mixture. If you like, you can test for seasoning by frying a small piece of the stuffing in a skillet and tasting it. Adjust the seasonings as you think best: a bit more salt or pepper, perhaps some more grated cheese, if it needs it.

Stuffing the Peppers

Take a handful of the meat mixture and stuff all of pepper halves with it, making sure to pack the stuffing in quite well. It's up to you how high you want to pile on the stuffing. Personally, I like to pile it on.

Baking the Peppers

Grease the bottom of a baking dish

of a baking dish large enough to hold all the peppers in a single layer with a generous drizzle of olive oil. If you like, you can lay out a 'bed' of vegetables. This will hold the peppers in place and provide a nice accompaniment to them, almost a kind of a sauce. Cut up one or more the vegetables listed above into small dice and mix well with the oregano, salt, pepper and olive oil. Lay the seasoned vegetables out evenly on the bottom of the baking dish.

Now place the pepper halves, stuffing side up in the baking dish. Top the peppers with breadcrumbs and/or more grated cheese. Drizzle everything well with olive oil.

Bake the peppers in a moderate (180C/350F) oven for about 45-60 minutes, or until the peppers are tender and the stuffing cooked through, and the peppers have nicely browned on top.

Serving the Peppers

Remove the peppers from the oven and let the cool off before eating them. These stuffed peppers can be eaten warm or at room temperature, but not piping hot from the oven. They are quite good—perhaps even bette