Culinary dogmas and family rules

and a recipe for stuffed zucchini and peppers

In my family, there are a few culinary dogmas that have to be met and have characterized my life since childhood. You are required to use rosemary with chickpeas and sage with beans, for example. The reason? Because we have always done it this way, and because it tastes good.

More rules appear in the summer when stuffed vegetables become one of the most common and appreciated dishes in our culinary repertoire.

Stuffing vegetables is a way of shifting the attention from a meat-based main course to a dish that sports vegetables as the star. They might be stuffed with meat, true, but most of the time it is bread and some cheese that constitute the stuffing of the seasonal product of the moment.

You deeply sense the weight of tradition with stuffed vegetables, of how things should be done, but you also appreciate the confidence that a combination of ingredients studied and refined through years of tests and trials can give you in the kitchen.

The rules at home are very simple. Stuffed eggplants? No doubt, make them with minced beef and sausages, and a handful of grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Stuffed zucchini? Pick the round ones, and stuff them with good quality canned tuna and breadcrumbs, a combination that always works and that every summer shows up in my kitchen as fireflies do in the fields. Stuffed tomatoes? Bake them with a sprinkling of breadcrumbs and finely minced capers. Stuffed bell peppers? Use white rice, a neutral canvas that can be enriched with the addition of some pantry staples that give character and flavor to the dish, such as olives and capers, but also diced cheese and cubed prosciutto cotto.

These rules give self-confidence to those who approach for the first time a recipe, but, as with every rule, they are also meant to be bent, or broken. So now I stuff round zucchini as Lucia, my mother-in-law, taught me—with ground meat mixed with zucchini pulp—, or tomatoes with rice, as the Romans do for their glorious summer dish, pomodori ripieni di riso. I have a recipe for them in our cookbook, Cucina Povera, on page 43, along with three more recipes for stuffed vegetables like bread and cheese stuffed eggplants from Calabria, potato and mushroom stuffed zucchini from Liguria, and bread and anchovy stuffed green peppers from Basilicata.

Another principle that is lately characterizing my approach to cooking—and for what is possible, also my approach to life—is to strip down a recipe to its bare essential ingredients.

It is exactly what I did with the stuffed zucchini and peppers that I started cooking last year in September, and that I couldn’t wait to welcome again in my kitchen this year. While I am typing this newsletter their aroma is wafting through the air from the kitchen and tingles my appetite.

Yes, I am asking you to turn on the oven, but you can do it while you are busy in another room—reading a book, folding the laundry, playing with your kids, or working on your laptop—or late at night, just before going to bed. The truth is, stuffed vegetables are great even when reheated or served at room temperature.

The next day you’ll be surprised by a delicious ready meal, and you’ll thank your future self for taking good care of you on a hot summer day.

Before jumping to today’s recipe, which you will find behind the paywall—thank you once again to all of you for supporting this newsletter!—, do let me know if you have a favorite recipe for stuffed vegetables. I’m especially curious about dairy-free options, as you might imagine!