Okay, I admit it. I’ve done stuffed peppers before. Red bell peppers, even. But that was 2 years ago, before the new Forkable, and so I’ve decided to liven them up. This time, they are halved, heaped with a mixture of quinoa, sausage, and other tasty things, and piled with shredded Italian cheeses. They’re way better than the ones I used to make.

Quinoa Sausage Pepper Boats

3 red peppers, cleaned and halved

1 c quinoa

2 c chicken broth or prepared buillon

1 small onion, minced

olive oil

salt to taste

1 lb hot Italian sausage

1/2 c ricotta cheese

shredded Italian cheese blend

Preheat oven to 350°F. Chop up least attractive of the 6 red peppers and throw into a saute pan with onion, a bit of olive oil, and some salt. Begin to sweat them down, then add sausage. Break sausage up, stirring occasionally to get an all-over brown. In a medium saucepan, cook quinoa in broth. In a larger pot, boil water; when it reaches a boil, add salt and par-cook the remaining pepper halves. When partly cooked but still vibrant red, transfer to baking dish. Add cooked quinoa to sausage mixture in saute pan, and add ricotta. Mix well, then stuff pepper halves with the mixture. Top with shredded cheese blend, and bake 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and golden brown.