Quick ideas
Red pepper sauce
A basic red pepper sauce that can be the jumping off point for a host of recipes; we have included some ideas at the end of the method. You could make the whole thing in a saucepan, cooking the sliced peppers down with the tomatoes, but blistering the peppers in the oven or on a griddle before adding them deepens the flavour with a layer of smokiness.
Cook's notes
Fold in some capers, olives and fresh herbs (rosemary in the winter, basil in the summer) and you have a classic Italian pepperonata, perfect served with gnocchi or pasta.
Add a little fragrant cumin and coriander to the pan and then crack in some eggs for a shakshuka shakshuka to start the day.
You could use it as the base of this veggie paella, just add some wine, stock, paprika and paella rice until it has plumped up in the pan and then fold in some seasonal greens.
It’ll serve as the backbone of a chilli too, just add some kidney/black beans and the relevant herbs and spices.
Ingredients
- 3 red peppers
- 2 red onions, finely sliced
- 400g chopped tomatoes - fresh ideally but tinned will do, or use a mix of the two
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, plus more to taste
- 200ml of water or stock
- salt & pepper
- olive oil
Method
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Step 1
Preheat your oven to 220°C/ Gas 7. Rub the peppers lightly in oil, place them in a roasting tray, and transfer to the oven for 25 -30 minutes, or until the skins are blackened and blistered and they are starting to collapse.
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Step 2
Meanwhile, warm 2 tablespoons of oil in a saucepan and cook onions with a pinch of salt for 10 mins over a gentle heat, until starting to soften.
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Step 3
Add the tomatoes, garlic, vinegar, and stock. Cook at a gentle heat for 20 mins until you have a rich thickened sauce.
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Step 4
Remove the peppers from the oven and, when just cool enough to handle, peel away the skins and discard the seeds and white pith. Roughly chop the roast pepper flesh and stir it into the tomato sauce. Taste and tweak with more salt, pepper, and red wine vinegar to your liking. If it is too sharp a small amount of brown sugar can help to balance it out. Serve as a dip, pasta sauce or use it as the start of one of the suggestions in the cook’s notes above.