Sweet & Sour Stuffed Peppers

This recipe -- my own combination/adaptation of about three other stuffed pepper recipes -- calls for 3 medium bell peppers. I had a bag of sweet mini-peppers (on sale recently at Safeway), so I used them instead; the recipe filled about a dozen mini-peppers, halved.

Ingredients:
1 medium carrot, small diced
1 C broccoli, small diced
1 lg shallot, small diced
2 Tbls olive oil 
¹/₃ lb ground pork sausage
3 Tbls tomato paste 
¼ C mix of chopped fresh parsley, dill and mint
¹/₃ C crushed pineapple, with juice
2 Tbls red wine vinegar
2 Tbls mirin 
½ tsp salt 
½ C prepared couscous
3 medium sweet bell peppers (any color) 
½ C grated asiago cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450°.

Heat 1 Tbls olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add chopped vegetables and cook, stirring frequently until tender (about 5 minutes). Add sausage and 2 Tbls tomato paste; break up sausage with a wooden spatula and cook until well browned. Add pineapple with juice, 1 Tbls vinegar, 1 Tbls mirin and salt. Bring to a simmer for about 2 minutes, stirring until mixture is well combined and becomes slightly saucy. Remove from heat. Add couscous and herbs, stirring to combine.

Halve the peppers lengthwise and remove seeds. Toss peppers with remaining olive oil to coat lightly. Whisk together remaining tomato paste, vinegar and mirin with ¼ cup water; pour into bottom of baking dish. Set halved peppers into baking dish cut-side up; fill each pepper with vegetable-sausage-couscous mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover loosely with foil and bake until peppers are tender, about 25 minutes.

Serve peppers drizzled with tomato cooking liquid from bottom of baking dish.