Slovak stuffed peppers (source: Naomi Huzovicova)
Stuffed peppers are a classic summer Slovak food. Filled with rice, meat, and marjoram, the peppers are stewed in smooth tomato sauce for a meal that is filling from produce in the garden.
Most recipes in English are baked, but Slovak stuffed peppers are stewed on a stove top instead. This makes practical sense, as an oven heats up a room even more than cooking on the stove. The result is more juicy and sweeter than baked peppers.
Most recipes in English also call for bell peppers, where as Slovaks use the banana peppers that most people grow in their gardens here. Banana peppers are longer and have a thinner flesh. Bell peppers can be used instead, but you probably won't need as many peppers and you may need to cook them a little longer.
My husband's mother always formed a few balls from the rice and meat mixture without stuffing it in a pepper, and a number of people have told me that such a ball was their favourite.
