
Cheese Filled Roasted Peppers with Basil Oil & Breadcrumbs
PREP TIME: 40mins
COOKING TIME: 20mins
This is my type of food, vibrant, full of flavour and fantastic textures.
Roasted romano peppers (the long ones) are filled with creamy cheese and baked until oozy, they are drizzled with a delicious basil oil and sprinkled with crunchy breadcrumbs. So delicious!
I made my own labneh by simply adding 1 cup thick greek yogurt to a cheese cloth (or you could use a clean kitchen j-cloth) set in a sieve over a bowl for 24 hours in the fridge.
You can use ricotta instead of labneh.
Ingredients:
- 6 romano peppers, with a 5cm incision lengthways
Filling:
- 180g ricotta cheese
- 75g cream cheese
- zest of 1 lemon & 2-3 tablespoons juice
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt & pepper
Spicy Breadcrumbs:
- 2 slices of bread, blitzed into rough looking breadcrumbs (or cut into cubes)
- pinch chilli flakes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt & pepper
Basil oil:
- 50ml olive oil
- 15g basil
- 1 small clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon  lemon juice
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180
- Place the peppers on a baking tray and make a 5cm incision across the middle of the pepper – don’t cut through the pepper (see pic for reference), you want to be able to ‘close’ the pepper once the filling is in.
- Roast the peppers for 30 minutes. Â Leave for 5 mins and very carefully peel off pepper skin leaving the stems on. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. This is a bit tricky and I find the base (the tip) of the pepper a good starting point.
- Meanwhile for the breadcrumbs, add the breadcrumbs/cubes to a tray, add the olive oil, chilli flakes and season with salt & pepper. Bake for 8-10mins until toasted and golden. Keep aside
- Add the filling ingredients together into a bowl and taste to check seasoning. Stuff peppers with filling and fold the skins so it’s all tucked in. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
- To make the basil oil, add the basil ingredients together into a high speed blender and mix until smooth. Drizzle over peppers when serving and add last small seasoning of salt and pepper.
- To serve, drizzle the peppers with the basil oil and sprinkle over the breadcrumbs, enjoy!