What it is
A large sweet pepper emptied and stuffed, usually with soaked stale bread crumb plus meat or meatless anchovy/caper/olive variants, then oven-cooked.
Origin place card
A whole-region Campanian household dish, especially visible in Cilento, Sannio, Irpinia and Naples historic-centre restaurant repertoires.
Verified history
The source calls the recipe traditional family use and notes it is proposed as a typical specialty in numerous restaurants. Treat this as source-supported tradition/history from Regione Campania — Peperone imbottito; the current evidence does not independently establish a founder, precise origin date, first attestation, or archival origin beyond that source framing.
Local hypothesis
Its root is bread economy: the base remains soaked stale crumb, whether the household enriches it with meat or with salty preserved fish and olives.
Local legend / oral tradition
No legend documented; fieldwork should map dialect name puparuolo 'mbuttunato and variant fillings.
Ingredients
Large red/yellow non-bitter peppers, soaked stale bread crumb, minced meat, pepper, salt, parsley, egg, grated Parmigiano; variants with anchovies, capers and black olives. Source-supported detail: Descrizione del prodotto Peperoni di grande taglia, quadrati o lunghi, solitamente rossi o gialli, di varietà non amare né piccanti, svuotati di picciolo e semi e ripieni di mollica di pane raffermo rinvenuta nell'acqua, carne tritata, pepe, sale, prezzemolo tritato,
Method
Remove stalk and seeds, mix the stuffing, fill peppers tightly without breaking them, bake—traditionally after bread baking, using residual oven heat. Source-supported detail: Sono solitamente cotti in forno, tradizionalmente dopo la cottura del pane, sfruttandone il calore residuo.
Ritual / calendar
Esistono comunque numerose varianti che tolgono ad esempio la carne tritata ed aggiungono alici salate, capperi ed olive nere; la base è sempre la mollica di pane ammollata in acqua.
Why travel for it
This should become a regional variant page with filling maps across Cilento, Sannio, Irpinia and Naples.
Recreate-it pathway
Test both meat and anchovy-caper-olive variants, and document the post-bread residual-heat cooking tradition.
Editorial warning
Official descriptive source supports the page seed. Do not promote to final tested recipe until household/fieldwork variant and quantities are recovered.
Fieldwork questions
Recover named local cooks, household variants, exact quantities, equipment, occasion, and where it is still served today.
Photo brief
Stuffed yellow and red peppers in a baking tray, with breadcrumbs browned at the opening.