New Years in Balestrate

We spent New Years Eve at our friend Gioacchino's house, taking in a ridiculous meal that consisted of an absurd amount of food. Here's what happened:

negroni with snacks: chips, cherry peppers stuffed with anchovies, olives stuffed with goat cheese, smoked salmon spread with toast
antipasti: a cheese tart with gorgonzola, a cheese tart with parmiggiano, roasted peppers stuffed with sausage, roasted oyster mushrooms and eggplant with primo sale and lemon vinaigrette, zucchini and ricotta tarts
pasta 1: vegetarian lasagna
pasta 2: fettucine with meat sauce
meat: veal roulade with peas, egg and prosciutto cotto
fish: swordfish steaks lightly breaded and fried
vegetable: peas, carrots and potatoes
dessert: an assortment of cannoli, cream puffs, and other little sweets. oh and i musn't forget the ever-present pannetone.

As if all of this wasn't enough, we were pretty much forced to eat lentils to usher in the new year. It's a tradition that eating lentils brings good luck and money in the coming year. I definitely reached maximum capacity and needed a bed as soon as possible.

I'll leave you with my recipe for the stuffed peppers:
6 bell peppers
1 1/2 lbs. sausage, casing removed
1/2 onion, small dice
1/4 Cup pine nuts
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 Tbsp cocoa, unsweetened
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp crushed red pepper
3 Cups tomato puree
parsley

Roast the peppers until soft, peel off skin, and remove seeds. I had really big peppers so I was able to cut each one into 3 to get 18 servings. Brown sausage in saucepan, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Remove sausage from pan and set aside. Saute onion and pine nuts in some olive oil until nuts are browned and onion is translucent. Add garlic, cocoa, cinnamon, red pepper and tomato puree (and salt to your liking). Let simmer on low heat for at least 15 minutes...adding more tomato puree (or stock or water) if it gets to thick for your taste. Add sausage back to pan and simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Add some parsley leaves at end for color. Place this mixture inside of flattened pepper and roll. We ate them at room temp...but hot would also be really good. Enjoy!