Pancetta Stuffed Peppers

My girlfriend gave me a Pampered Chef 7” Santoku knife for my birthday, so I asked her to pick something for me to cook so I could do some chopping. She knows I like stuffed peppers, so she searched for some recipes online to “guide” me and I re-engineered them to come up with my own variation. Since it turned out better than most of my experiments, I figured I would share it here:

INGREDIENTS:
1/3 cup jasmine rice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup minced carrots
1/4 cup celery
3 bell peppers (in my case: two green, one red)
1/4 pound ground beef
1/3 pound pancetta
3/4 cups marinara sauce (I include my home-made version here)
1/8 cup red wine
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 slices American cheese

DIRECTIONS:
1. Prepare marinara sauce: Saute a quarter cup chopped onion and one large chopped clove of garlic. Add one cup of fresh peeled tomatoes slightly pureed, one quarter cup of fresh chopped basil, a pinch of parsley and simmer until it reduces down to a relatively thick sauce, about twenty minutes.
2. Cook rice. I use a rice cooker so I don’t have to baby sit it.
3. Then, get started on your stuffing mixture: Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Saute carrots and celery. Add pancetta, then ground beef, cook until browned and crumbled; drain off any excess liquid, and return to heat. Add marinara sauce, wine, and red pepper flakes. Stir in rice. Add cream and half of the Parmesan cheese. Simmer a few minutes more, allowing for most of the liquid to reduce.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
5. Par boil Peppers for two minutes. Remove and rinse in cool water to stop them from over-cooking. Place peppers in a shallow baking dish, and fill with stuffing mix.
6. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from oven at about 25 minutes and cover peppers with American cheese, sprinkling remaining Parmesan on top. Bake five more minutes or until cheese starts to brown.
7. Serve hot, preferably with a couple of cold Sierra Pale Ales.

Next time I think I will use Brother Jim’s suggestion and try grilling them...