Recipe · Main course · Arequipa
Rocotos rellenos
Rocotos hollowed out and blanched, stuffed with beef and pork with ají panca, onion, peanuts, olives, raisins and egg, baked with cheese. The pepper stays hot.
- Serves 4 (4 rocotos)
- About 1 hr 30 min (estimate)
- Intermediate
A pepper as round as a small apple, hollowed out, stuffed with meat cooked with ají panca, peanuts, olives and egg, then baked with cheese: rocoto relleno is Arequipa’s best-known dish, served in its picanterías.
A dish from Arequipa, and a legend
Wikipedia presents it as a dish originating in Arequipa that has become one of the most famous in the country: a rocoto stuffed with minced beef, pork or both, olives and fresh cheese, seasoned with cumin and parsley, baked and served with potatoes or a pastel de papa. The story of the priest who supposedly invented the dish as part of a pact with the devil is a piece of fiction by the writer Carlos Herrera, not a historical fact. The menu of La Nueva Palomino, in Arequipa, describes a stuffing of beef and pork, peanuts, egg, olives and raisins.
The rocoto and its heat
The rocoto (Capsicum pubescens) is a thick, juicy, very hot chilli, milder in flavour than other ajís according to Wikipedia. Its heat is concentrated in the seeds and the membranes: they are removed completely, then the pepper is blanched in several changes of water. It stays hot nonetheless: that is the character of the dish. In Switzerland, frozen rocotos can sometimes be found in Latin American grocery shops.
Our version
Adjust the number of blanching baths by tasting. Cooking the stuffing separately ensures the minced meat is fully cooked before baking.
Ingredients
Serves 4 (4 rocotos)
Estimated preparation time
- Active time
- 40 minutes
- Cooking
- 20 minutes of blanching, 15 minutes for the stuffing, 25 minutes in the oven
- Total
- About 1 hr 30 min
Techniques: Boiling, Simmering, Oven.
The rocotos
The stuffing
The cheese topping
To serve
Tick off the ingredients as you go: the boxes are remembered on this device.
Useful equipment
- Disposable gloves
- A saucepan
- A melon baller or teaspoon
- An ovenproof dish
- An extractor hood or an open window
Method
- Put on gloves. Cut a lid off each rocoto, at the stalk end, and keep it. Remove all the seeds and white membranes with a teaspoon: that is where the heat is concentrated.
- Blanch the rocotos: plunge them into boiling water with a little vinegar and sugar for 5 minutes, drain, then repeat twice with fresh water. Extractor hood on or window open: the steam stings the eyes and throat.
- Taste a small piece of the wall after the third blanching. If it is still too strong for your guests, give them a fourth bath; the rocoto will stay hot anyway.
- For the stuffing, fry the onion in the oil for 6 minutes, then the garlic, the ají panca and the cumin for 2 minutes. Add the minced meats and cook them for 8 to 10 minutes, breaking them up, until they are no longer pink, at least 70 °C at the core.
- Off the heat, add the peanuts, the raisins, the olives, the hard-boiled egg and the parsley. Season with salt.
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Fill the rocotos without packing the stuffing down, place them in the dish, cover each one with a slice of cheese and put the lids alongside.
- Beat the egg with the milk and pour it into the bottom of the dish and over the cheese. Bake for 25 minutes, until the cheese has melted and browned and the egg has set.
- Serve hot, with roast potatoes or a pastel de papa.
Signs of success
- The walls of the rocotos are tender to the tip of a knife, but the pepper keeps its shape.
- The stuffing is juicy, neither dry nor greasy; the cheese forms a golden crust.
- The heat is still there: blanching tones it down, it does not remove it.
Precautions
- Gloves for hollowing out the rocotos, and do not touch your eyes. Wash the board and the knife in hot soapy water.
- Steam from the blanching: air the kitchen.
- Never present rocoto as mild to children or to someone sensitive to chilli.
Allergens identified
Present: milk, egg, peanuts.
Always check the labels of the products you buy (sauces, stocks, chilli pastes).
Variations and tips
- With a pastel de papa, a gratin of potatoes with fresh cheese and egg, as in Arequipa according to Wikipedia.
- With peas in the stuffing.
Reasonable substitutions
- Rocotos impossible to find: small red peppers give a mild version, to be presented as an adaptation; add chilli to the stuffing if you want some kick.
- Peruvian fresh cheese: a mild feta or a firm mozzarella brown differently, but are suitable.
Storage
- Leftovers: in the fridge within one to two hours of cooking, to be eaten within 48 hours or frozen; reheat in the oven to at least 70 °C.
Going further
Sources and dates
3 sources
Prices, opening hours and rules change: every piece of information cited links to its source, with the date it was consulted.
Figures and rules cited
- at least 70 °C at the core: Minimum core temperature for meat, poultry, fish and seafood (general Swiss guideline) (Switzerland) . A food safety guideline, not a culinary doneness criterion: some meats are served more cooked.
Official source: FSVO, Hygiène et aliments (food hygiene: four basic rules, in French) (new tab) · consulted on 3 October 2026 - in the fridge within one to two hours of cooking, to be eaten within 48 hours or frozen: Cooling and keeping cooked leftovers (United Kingdom) . The same source asks you to thaw food in the fridge and to eat thawed food within 24 hours.
Official source: GOV.UK (Food Standards Agency), cooling, freezing and defrosting food safely (18 December 2017) (new tab) , published on 18 December 2017 · consulted on 3 October 2026 - to at least 70 °C: Reheating a dish that is already cooked (Switzerland)
Official source: FSVO, Hygiène et aliments (food hygiene, in French) (new tab) · consulted on 3 October 2026
Sources consulted
- Wikipedia (Spanish), Rocoto relleno (Arequipa, stuffing, pastel de papa, literary legend) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
- Marca Perú (PROMPERÚ), Arequipa’s cooking (rocoto relleno: stuffing, ají panca ground on the batán, side dishes) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
- La Nueva Palomino, menu (rocoto relleno: beef and pork, peanuts, egg, olives, raisins) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
How we choose and date our information: our method. Has something changed? Let us know.