Goat Cheese Stuffed Piquillo Peppers are the perfect tapas! Mild piquillo peppers are stuffed with a goat cheese and manchego filling and paired with a Spanish red wine.
“Have I told you lately that I love you? Have I told you there’s no one else above you? Fill my heart with gladness, take away all my sadness…ease my troubles that’s what you do…” – Rod Stewart
I would like to dedicate this song to these Goat Cheese Stuffed Piquillo Peppers. You’ll want to, too after you take a bite of these. Mild piquillo peppers are stuffed with creamy goat cheese, a few spanish spices and are piled onto toasty ciabatta bread and served with a perfectly acidic Spanish red wine, Beronia Reserva.
Did I take it too far with the song? No? Ok, good…just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.
Today, I was asked to do a Spanish tapas and red wine pairing. When they first asked me, I immediately jumped at the chance. I am 100%, completely fascinated by wine pairings. One of my favorite activities is going to wineries, trying the wine, and of course, tasting all the delicious cheeses and food that goes with it. To be a connoisseur of wine some day would be a dream come true!
It’s just too cool.
I made a small step towards coming a wine/food pairing expert ( 😉 ), by pairing these goat cheese stuffed piquillo peppers with the Beronia Reserva, and I have to say, it was good!
I got the idea for the peppers when Trevor and I were out with some friends (hey Kevin and Libbie!) and somehow we started talking about food…weird, right? 😉 They told me that they’d started making this really easy appetizer – peppadew peppers stuffed with goat cheese – and were absolutely obsessed with it! So when I needed to come up with a recipe idea to pair with the Beronia Reserva, I knew I wanted to do a peppadew pepper with goat cheese.
Unfortunately, when I got to the store, I could not find the peppadew peppers anywhere! I looked by the olive bar, I looked in the jarred food section…nothing. I did, however, find piquillo peppers. I looked them up online and found that they were Spanish. Perfection! Just what I was looking for.
So I grabbed some jarred piquillo peppers, and then went over to my favorite part of the grocery store: the cheese section.
I did some browsing and ended up deciding on goat cheese, um, because it’s the best, and a Spanish cheese: Manchego. Manchego is sweet, nutty, and a little tangy, which I thought would work well with my tangy goat cheese.
When I got home, I mixed together my goat cheese and manchego and started to play around with spices. Smoked paprika and thyme are often used in Spanish cooking, so it only made sense to add those to the cheese mixture!
I’d never really used smoked paprika before and now I absolutely <3 it. It adds so much depth of flavor!
After the filling was done, I stuffed it into my piquillo peppers and popped them into the oven with some sliced ciabatta bread.
10 minutes later – love fast appetizers! – the filling was ooozing and the ciabatta was toasty. I topped the peppers on the bread and poured myself a glass of the Beronia Reserva .
Now.
For the ultimate test.
I took a bite of the goat cheese stuffed piquillo peppers and then quickly took a sip of the wine and….
It worked! The mild piquillo peppers were warm and stuffed with the creamy, tangy, smoky goat cheese filling. I loved the crunch from the bread…it definitely made this a substantial appetizer. The red wine cut through the rich filling perfectly. I had never had Spanish wine before, but it was so tasty! This one was described as “lively acidic”, “juicy”, with “spicy herbal aromas” and I absolutely loved it, especially with the stuffed peppers.
These goat cheese stuffed piquillo peppers are a keeper and it was so much fun to do a wine pairing! I will definitely be doing more in the future.
– Jennifer
Do you like wine and food pairings? What are some of your favorites? Show me the yummy!
Goat Cheese Stuffed Piquillo Peppers
Equipment for this recipe
Ingredients
- 1 loaf ciabatta cut into 3/4 - 1 inch slices
- 1 (10 oz) jar piquillo peppers drained
Filling
- ½ cup manchego shredded
- 1 (8 oz) log log goat cheese softened to room temperature
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ - ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a small bowl, mix together shredded manchego, goat cheese, smoked paprika, thyme, and salt. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.
- Use one hand to open up the piquillo and use a butter knife to stuff the filling into each pepper.
- Place on an un-greased, rimmed baking sheet.
- On the same baking sheet, or another if you don't have room, place the sliced ciabatta. Drizzle the ciabatta with a touch of olive oil.
- Bake for 10 minutes, or until the toast is toasty and the pepper filling is hot. Remove from oven, place 1 pepper onto 1 piece of toast and serve immediately!
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Notes
Nutrition Information
*Note: Nutrition information is estimated and varies based on products used.
* This is not a sponsored post, I was, however, provided with the Beronia Reserva from Bodegas Beronia!
Elizabeth
Jennifer @ Show Me the Yummy