Bell-issimo
Everyone seems to have a favorite stuffed pepper recipe, whether it was hastily jotted down on an index card and shoved into a metal recipe box by your grandmother, or is trending on TikTok. Whatever your favorite recipe, they all have one thing in common. Gorgeous, nutritious vessels.
Peppers (genus Capsicum) come in a variety of shapes and sizes, include over 30 flowering plants, and are known by a myriad of names. They are all members of the nightshade (Solanaceae) family, though. Other vegetables in the nightshade family include eggplants, tomatoes, tomatillos, and potatoes.
Nightshades contain small amounts of alkaloids that can help plants defend themselves against various pathogens and herbivores. If you have any dietary restrictions, you may want to discuss with your primary care physician, before consuming them in large quantities. According to WebMD editorial contributors, “some preliminary research shows these vegetables may not be the best for people with certain inflammatory and auto-immune conditions like arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease.” It’s not that they cause inflammation, but their consumption may increase it. As for myself, I not only relish eating a variety of peppers from my garden each summer, but I look forward to preserving them to be enjoyed during the colder, darker months (like now).
According to Britannica.com, peppers are native to tropical Asia and equatorial America and play an important role in their cuisines. “Traces of pepper fruits have been found in prehistoric remains in Peru and Mexico, and the plants were widely grown in Central and South America by various pre-Columbian civilizations…The first pepper seeds were carried to Spain in 1493 and from there spread rapidly throughout Europe and the rest of the world.”
Bell peppers, which are technically fruits, are mild and, depending on their color, taste sweet. Because red, yellow, and orange bell peppers are allowed to ripen on the vine longer than their green, less expensive counterparts, they taste much sweeter. And, when they are added to salads, they give a bright burst of color. This is why you will typically see them included on crudite platters.
In cooked dishes they are high in vitamin A and vitamin C. According to MayoClinic.org, “vitamin A (retinoic acid)… is a nutrient important to vision, growth, cell division, reproduction, and immunity. Vitamin A also has antioxidant properties. Antioxidants are substances that might protect your cells against the effects of free radicals — molecules produced when your body breaks down food or is exposed to tobacco smoke and radiation. Free radicals might play a role in heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.” And “vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is a nutrient your body needs to form blood vessels, cartilage, muscle and collagen in bones.” Not only that, but it’s critical to your body’s ability to heal itself.
But some of the more interesting factoids I stumbled upon came from a piece written by International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Certified Arborist, Paul Hetzler, for Adirondack Almanack, entitled, “The Bell Pepper: A Vegetable History.” The original strain of sweet peppers was devoid of capsaicin. Capsaicin is the spicy chemical that makes sane folks question why anyone would willingly participate in hot pepper challenges. It’s what gives hot peppers their kick. This original strain of sweet peppers was named “bell” because of the sound it made on windy days. “It had a rather hard, thin wall, and contained an elongated vestigial stigma [a flower’s female component] inside…This leftover stigma acted as a natural clapper, striking the walls of the bell pepper as it swayed in the wind. As a result, sweet peppers were a very noisy crop. So much so, in fact, that during high winds, maturing bell peppers would startle livestock, causing them to bolt, and would keep villagers awake at night. For over 400 years, bell peppers were relegated to a curiosity, and not widely cultivated,” writes Hetzler. I can only imagine how perturbed this would make sleep-deprived villagers. “Fortunately for us, self-taught plant breeder Gregor Carillon developed the first silent bell pepper in 1908. And the rest, as they say, is history,” writes Hetzler.
Do you know who else loved to cook with bell peppers? New England icon and culinary expert, Fannie Merritt Farmer. In her 1911 edition of The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, she includes not one, but two, stuffed peppers recipes. The Stuffed Peppers I recipe includes Brown Sauce and breadcrumbs. “Cool mixture, sprinkle peppers with salt, fill with cooked mixture, cover with buttered breadcrumbs, and bake ten minutes. Serve on toast with Brown Sauce.” The Stuffed Peppers II recipe shakes things up a bit with the addition of onion juice. “Fill with equal parts of finely chopped cold cooked chicken or veal, and softened breadcrumbs, seasoned with onion juice, salt, and pepper.” While I’ve never made onion juice myself, it is nutritious. Maybe next time, I’ll include it when I make stuffed peppers.
