Italian Style Roasted Green Beans

If you like green beans you will love this recipe. I had my neighbors over for dinner and they watched me open up the oven to stir the green beans. They said, "what do you have going on in there?" Well, we all enjoyed our veggies that night. Once you eat these babies roasted you will crave them this way. This is my cold winter-time way of cooking my green beans. They are very easy to make and you can not beat the flavor. So roast them up and warm up your kitchen. Who would have ever thought that green beans cooking would smell so good?

I buy the small french green beans at the wholesale food clubs. You can't beat the price and they are already trimmed and ready to go.

Italian Style Roasted Green Beans

2 ½ lbs. green beans, trimmed

4 Tbsp. olive oil

¾ tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. chopped garlic

¼ tsp. coarsely ground black pepper

2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

2 Tbsp. loosely packed fresh oregano leaves, chopped

Preheat oven to 450°. In a large roasting pan (17” x 11.5”) toss green beans with 2 Tbsp. oil and ½ tsp. salt and garlic. Roast beans 25 to 30 minutes or until tender and slightly browned, stirring twice. Meanwhile,, in large bowl, with wire whisk mix oil and vinegar, oregano, black pepper, remaining 2 Tbsp. olive oil and remaining ¼ tsp. salt until blended. When beans are done add to vinaigrette in bowl with oregano. Toss until evenly coated. Serve immediately or at room temperature.

Grilled Stuffed Peppers

• 1 loaf of crusty Italian bread
• 3 Tbsp. plus 1 Tbsp. of garlic flavored olive oil
• 3 yellow sweet bell peppers
• 1 ½ cup mozzarella cheese cut into cubes
• 1 ½ tsp. dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste
• pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• Shredded Asiago or Parmesan cheese (optional)

Slice bread, remove crust and cut into 1 inch croutons until you have 1 ½ cups. Saute bread in a nonstick skillet with 3 Tsbp. olive oil over medium heat until browned. Set aside.

Cut tops off of peppers and reserve for caps, remove seeds and membranes. In a bowl mix together croutons, 1 Tbsp. olive oil, cheese, basil, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper. Mix well. Stuff peppers with mixture dividing evenly between peppers. Place pepper caps on top of pepper. If peppers will not stand up, roll up a long strip of aluminum foil and wrap around base to hold them in place.

Over indirect medium heat on your grill cook peppers for 15 minutes or until tender, you do not want the pepper to lose it's shape. When peppers are cooked remove to platter and cut in half lengthwise.

You may serve this way or you may also sprinkle on some Asiago or Parmesan cheese and broil for 2-3 minutes. I like to use a hearty grain bread.