Speca të Mbushura — Print Recipe

Sweet bell peppers stuffed with a fragrant mixture of rice and seasoned ground beef, slowly baked in a tomato sauce until tender. A colorful and satisfying Kosovar home-cooking staple.

Ingredients

8 bell peppers, tops removed and seeded
400g ground beef
200g rice
1 onion, finely diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
400ml tomato sauce
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions

1 Sauté diced onion in oil until soft, then add ground beef and cook until browned.
2 Stir in partially cooked rice, tomato paste, paprika, salt, pepper, and parsley.
3 Stuff each pepper with the mixture, leaving a little room at the top for the rice to expand.
4 Stand peppers upright in a baking dish and pour tomato sauce around them.
5 Add enough water to come halfway up the peppers, cover with foil, and bake at 180°C for fifty to sixty minutes.
6 Remove foil for the last ten minutes to brown the tops slightly.

Did You Know?

Kosovar families often grow their own peppers specifically for stuffing, favoring the large sweet varieties.