Piedmont peppers
This is a recipe I found on Delia Smith’s website here.
It is so simple with really humble ingredients but really flavourful. The anchovies are essential to the overall flavour so please don’t skip those. The recipe calls for skinning the tomatoes but I don’t bother personally. If you do, then the tomatoes will break down further and all the ingredients in the peppers meld together all the more, but I favour ease and speed so usually skip this step. For me this is one of those dishes you make when you have minimal time to prep just need to get something in the oven fast (but once in there happy to let it do its thing and wait, it does take about an hour).
Serves 2
Time About 1 hour (+5 mins prep)
Ingredients
2 large red peppers (you could use other peppers though ideally not green as they’re not sweet enough)
2-3 medium sized tomatoes cut in to wedges
4 tinned anchovies, drained
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
4 dessertspoons of extra virgin olive oil (I usually use a little less than this)
Black pepper
Small bunch of fresh basil leaves (I used about 6 leaves, they were really big so I sliced them up)
Bread to serve
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180c/gas mark 4/350F.
Cut the peppers in half and deseed them leaving the stalks for visual appeal only if your peppers still have a stalk attached.
Place the peppers on a baking tray and add the tomatoes (if you choose to follow the original recipe, this is where you would place the whole tomatoes in boiling water for 1 minute to split the skins, then drain and peel the skins off, before cutting the tomatoes in to wedges. I usually skip this step). You could also use halved cherry tomatoes if preferred.
Chop the anchovy fillets in to small pieces and add about 1 fillet to each pepper half, scattering around the inside of the pepper alongside the tomatoes.
Divide and add the garlic slices to the peppers.
Drizzle a dessertspoon of extra virgin olive oil on to and in to each pepper half (I tend to use a bit less oil than this).
Season with cracked black pepper
Roast the pepper for 50 minutes to 1 hour, they should be starting to char on the edges and you will see they will really soften.
Carefully remove the peppers to your serving plate, the peppers will be full of juice so careful not to spill everywhere.
Add the fresh basil on top and serve.
These peppers are so flavoursome and juicy that I think some chunky bread is an essential accompaniment. I used garlic bread here as that is what I had at home, but probably something a bit plainer with less oil would be better e.g. a hunk of sourdough, ciabatta or a crusty roll.
