Bacon-Wrapped Peppadews

I have been in LUUUUUUUUUUV with peppadews since I worked at Martin’s Wine Cellar in New Orleans.  Because when you work in the gourmet foods section, you have access to the OLIVE BAR.

Sweet precious baby Jesus, I LOVE olive bars.

Oddly, I didn’t really like olives much until I started working at Martins.  Well, scratch that.  I liked martini olives, because I used to chow down on them when I worked as a bartender in college (hey, free snacks!).  But I didn’t think much of the rest of the olive community.

And then I met wine-soaked kalamatas, and jalapeno stuffed queen olives, and giant cerignola’s in a garlic & lemon brine.

(My friend and fellow former gourmet foods expert Kathy refers to these as “sex olives” because they’re THAT good.)

Our olive bar also had the delicious tiny cornichon pickles, and peppadews, the “piquante African sweet pepper”.

As a snack or lunch, my coworkers & I frequently made “peppa-shoes”, which consisted of goat cheese, wrapped in thinly sliced proscuitto, stuffed inside the peppadew.  YUM.

(These are a few of my favorite things…)

However, I no longer work at a deli & prosciutto is EXPENSIVE. 

Ergo…we have BACON!!!

Ingredients:

8 peppadew peppers

2-3 tbsp soft goat cheese
4 pieces of low sodium bacon, cut in half
toothpicks

Directions:
This is pretty similar to the jalapeno recipe I did a while back.  First, scoop goat cheese into a ziploc baggie, then snip a small hole in one corner, to use it as a piping bag.  Then pipe the cheese into a peppadew:

Then, wrap with a half strip of bacon & secure with a toothpick.  I baked these in a muffin pan to make sure they stayed upright.

(Ignore that one on the lower right…he’s shy.)

Bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes or until the bacon gets crisp.  Then serve!

Makes eight peppers.

NutriFacts: (per pepper)
Calories 84.5
  Total Fat 8.0 g
  Saturated Fat 3.3 g
  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.0 g
  Monounsaturated Fat 0.2 g
  Cholesterol 15.4 mg
  Sodium 98.0 mg
  Potassium 0.9 mg
  Total Carbohydrate 0.5 g
  Dietary Fiber 0.0 g
  Sugars 0.0 g
Protein 2.2 g

Shared on 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesday & Grateful Belly.