Leftovers Out Of Leftovers

Leftovers Out Of Leftovers

To think, some people claim I’m not environmentally conscious! Here I am recycling leftovers into new meals and then recycling those leftovers into another new meal. Tuesday we grilled tons of burgers and had lots leftover. Wednesday, I served stuffed peppers made with leftover burgers. The problem is, after we were done eating, we have several stuffed peppers left.

Here’s how I put a stop to that dilemma. I was going to make spaghetti with meat sauce, so I started cooking some beef. Once the beef was cooked, I plopped a stuffed pepper into the pot, chopped it up and then made the spaghetti sauce out of that. We served the spaghetti sauce over rigatoni and over reheated stuffed peppers. This time we did it! We finished all the leftovers!

Olive oil

1 lb. fresh ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped fine

4 cloves of garlic, chopped fine

1 tsp. thyme

2 tsp. basil

1 tsp. ground savory

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Garlic salt

1 stuffed pepper

1 cup of white wine

1 can of Ro*Tel tomatoes

1 28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes

Louisiana Hot Sauce

1 lb. rigatoni, cooked and drained

Preparation

Heat a large dutch oven and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the ground beef and break it up. Stir and cook until the meat looses its pink color. Add the onion, garlic, thyme, basil, savory and red pepper flakes. Sprinkle on some garlic salt. Go ahead, sprinkle on some more.

Once the onion starts to soften, add the white wine and bring it to a boil. Let it reduce by about half. Add the stuffed pepper. Use a knife and fork to break up the pepper and chop it up. Stir all the stuffing and the pepper pieces until it is well mixed. Add the can of Ro*Tel tomatoes and stir. Once that is simmering, add the can of San Marzano tomatoes and break them up with a knife. 

Let the sauce simmer while you put water on to boil the pasta. Taste and adjust the sauce for salt, pepper and cajun seasoning. Go ahead and splash on some more Louisiana Hot Sauce, it’s good for you.

Serving

Serve a big pile of rigatoni next to a heated stuffed pepper. Use a knife and slice the stuffed pepper in half. Cover everything with tons of the sauce. Now add some salad, a fresh vegetable tray, assorted olives and some homemade bread. Open a bottle of Petite Sirah and fill the glasses. As one of my housemates said, “This is different, but it’s good!”