Bison breakdown

All I wanted to do was do something with the ground bison I had bought.

I knew I could do the obvious – a rich ragu for pasta or bison burgers – but I want to stretch myself. It had been a week of eating out and on the go, so I wanted to go the distance.

Handmade ravioli, perhaps?

Not bad, but that’s the best you can do, I asked myself.

I was still at a loss just before heading out to the library, when I had a quick glance  through a newish Food & Wine magazine. It was an ode to Italy, something that I find okay to read about, but not something I cook very often.

A sausage and peppers recipe caught my eye because it used the raw sausage meat out of the casings instead of ground.

Ooh, I could replace the sausage with my beautiful red bison – Done!

I quickly wrote down the few ingredients I didn’t have on hand (White bread? Who still eats white bread) and headed out the door.

1 hour,7 bags and 22 photocopies later, I arrive home and unpack my loot quickly.

Lovely Molly at our local coffee shop, had some of my Golden Hubbard Squash Soup the other night and tonight on my way home, I saw her and shesaid how much she’d liked it. Now of course she was just being polite, but I love being able to cook for people, so I told her I was going to be making Potato Leek tonight (thanks to my friend Diana for telling me about her delectable Monet one yesterday and Ian Knauner tweeting about a leek sauce he made with anchovies, I had a wicked craving) and would she like some.

Again, the poor girl was probably just being nice, but she said yes, so I wanted to make sure she had a big piping bowl before she closed.

After the soup. (Ooh I was pleased how rich it was despite using milk instead of cream and deep it tasted – I used 3 types of pepper – the salt craze is fine and everything, but I’m having such a blast experimenting with pepper!), I turned to my Sausage and Peppers recipe.

Following the instructions, I went through the many, many steps (why didn’t it seem like this much an hour ago) and realized – didn’t have pine nuts as I’d sworn to earlier.

Now what?

Hmm.

Pecans. That seems like it would go with bison. Is that weird?

Well, it would be if I’d remembered tomato sauce.

@#*! Should I substitue tomato paste and water? Salsa? Ketchup?

Oh crap.

So then I decided that dried cherries would go nicely with the pecans and I’d go without the the tomato sauce entirely.

Which is how I came to make Thanksgiving-y Bison Peppers, inspired by the Food & Wine recipe.

Though it turned out to take me much longer than expected, I though it was a damn tasty dish.

And the bonus about bison is that you get such meat satisfaction without the heaviness that comes with beef.

Food & Wine’s Spinach & Sausage Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

One 5-ounce bag baby spinach
2  slices of white sandwich bread, finely chopped
1/4 cup milk
1 large egg
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 tablespoons chopped red onion
1 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage, casings removed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 small or 4 large Italian frying peppers—halved lengthwise and cored, stems left intact
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup canned tomato sauce
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

Directions

In a very large skillet, cook thespinach over high heat just until wilted, about 1 minute. Drain and press out all of the water. Coarsely chop the spinach. Rinse out and dry the pan.

In a large bowl, knead the chopped bread with the milk, egg and cheese to form a paste. Knead in the pine nuts, onion, sausage and spinach and season lightly with salt and pepper. Using lightly moistened hands, divide the mixture among the pepper halves and lightly pack it in.

In the skillet, heat the olive oil until shimmering. Add the stuffed peppers, filling side down, and cook over high heat until well-browned, about 4 minutes.

Turn the peppers and cook until the skins are browned and blistered, about 4 minutes longer. Add the tomato sauce and chicken broth, cover and simmer until the sausage filling is cooked through and the peppers are tender, 5 to 6 minutes.

Transfer to plates and serve right away.

Make Ahead

The stuffed peppers in sauce can be refrigerated overnight.

Next up… rabbit!