Peperoni! You Have Other Options than Grill Them
Bell Pepper Sauce
Ingredients:
5 large bell peppers
A clove of garlic
Olive oil
Unsalted butter
Tomato Sauce
Preparation:
Take large green bell peppers, remove the seeds, and cut them lengthwise into four or five strips. Cook them for a few seconds in hot oil so as to be able to skin them. After peeling them, set a finely minced clove of garlic to cook in oil and butter, and when it has browned, add the peppers.
Stir them, let them cook for a few minutes to absorb the flavor of the garlic, and then add a tablespoon of tomato sauce or more to taste.
Do not overcook the peppers, because they will loose their hotness, which is what makes them good. Serve them with boiled meat.
Bell Pepper Rollup
Ingredients:
4 bell peppers (several colors will look nicer)
1/2 cup pitted black olives (the sweet, unspicy variety), minced
3/4 pound fresh ricotta (get this from a delicatessen that has real ricotta)
1/4 pound bacon, sliced
The leaves from several sprigs of marjoram
Olive oil, salt and pepper.
Wooden tooth picks
Preparation:
Quarter the peppers, discarding the seeds, and broil the resulting strips skin-side up to loosen the skins, then scrape the skins off.
Preheat your oven to 450F (220C).
Combine the ricotta, minced olives and marjoram leaves in a bowl, seasoning the mixture with salt and pepper, and adding just enough olive oil to make it creamy. Spread some of the mixture over each of the pepper strips.
Roll up the pepper strips, wrap each with a slice of bacon (half a slice will probably do), and stick them with tooth picks to hold them together. Put them in a lightly oiled pan and bake them until the bacon is crispy and done, about a half hour.
Though these will work nicely as a side dish I prefer them at the beginning of the meal.
A wine? A light white, for example a Tuscan Galestro.
Stuffed Raw Peppers
Ingredients:
1/2 pound (200g) tuna packed in oil
A tender carrot
4 mozzarella bocconcini (mozzarellas the size of golf balls)
4 radishes
2 ripe bell peppers
2 eggs, hard boiled
The juice of a half a lemon
8 stuffed olives (the variety you prefer)
2 black olives, pitted and sliced into rounds
Olive oil
Worcestershire sauce
Salt & pepper to taste
Fresh basil leaves or sprigs of parsley
Preparation:
Halve the peppers lengthwise, remove the stems, seed them, and rib them. Dice the mozzarella, shred the tuna, halve the olives, julienne the carrot, and combine them in a bowl; season the mixture with salt, pepper, the lemon juice, and a little olive oil.
Use the mixture to stuff the peppers. Peel and quarter the eggs lengthwise and lay them on the salad, topping them with black olive rounds. Slice the radishes too and arrange the slices around the eggs.
Put the peppers on a serving dish, garnish them with the fresh herbs, cover them, and chill them in your refrigerator before serving them.
Bell Pepper Timpano
Ingredients:
4 1/2 pounds bell peppers (a variety of colors will make for a prettier dish)
2 cloves garlic
1 1/4 pounds canned tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
A medium-sized bunch of parsley, minced
Basil, minced
Oregano (minced if fresh, crumbled if dry)
1/4 pound sweet black olives
2 tablespoons olive oil for the bread crumbs
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
3 ounces salted anchovies
1 pound perciatelli (a long-stranded variety of pasta)
1/4 cup butter or lard
Salt & pepper to taste
Preparation:
Cut the peppers into strips, removing and discarding ribs and seeds, and run the pieces under a broiler to blister the skins. Scrape off the skins, lightly saute the peppers, and put them in a colander to drain for an hour or two (or longer if you have the time).
Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until it's just barely done (quite al dente, in other words).
While the water is heating, drain, seed, and chop the tomatoes. Sauté a clove of garlic in the quarter cup of olive oil, and when it begins to color add the tomatoes and minced herbs, going easy on the oregano.
Cook the mixture for about 10 minutes, and in the meantime rinse, bone, pat dry and chop the anchovies. Mix them into the tomato sauce and turn off the burner.
As soon as the pasta is done drain it, stir it into the sauce, and heat everything through for a few minutes.
It is now time to assemble the timpano: Take an oven-proof dish large enough to hold the ingredients (you may want a spring-form pan), line it with oven paper, and then with the pieces of pepper (as if you were making a pie crust of them).
Fill the dish with the pasta, cover it with the remaining peppers, dust them with the bread crumbs, drizzle a little olive over them, and cover the dish with another sheet of oven paper. Bake the timpano for about a half hour in a hot (380 F, 180 C) oven.
When you remove it let it sit for 10 minutes, then carefully remove it from the pan, remove the paper, and serve.
A wine? White, and I might go with a Greco di Tufo.
A Rustic Peperonata
Ingredients:
Bell peppers of a variety of colors
2 onions
2-3 tomatoes
Olive oil
Preparation:
Take bell peppers of a variety of colors, seed them, and rib them. Thinly slice one or two onions, depending upon the number of peppers, and blanch, peel, seed, and crumble a couple of tomatoes.
Mince and sauté a little bit of the onion in olive oil, and when it begins to brown add the remaining onion and the peppers. Cook covered for a few minutes over a medium flame, just long enough for the peppers and onion to wilt without browning.
At this point remove the cover and cook, stirring gently, until the liquid evaporates. Next, add the crumbled tomatoes; when they have wilted but aren't completely cooked the peperonata is ready: You'll end up with a dish that's somewhat cooked and somewhat raw, and which can be eaten hot, as a side dish, or spread cold over slices of toasted bread as a snack.
Buon appetito!
