Roasted Peppers: The (Almost) Other Red Meat

I'm so old I remember when red bell peppers were seasonal. In 1981, my first year in New York City, a department store actually ran a newspaper ad touting them as a colorful harbinger of fall (and signal to start shopping for sweaters). Now, of course, you can find them all year, imported from Holland and with about as much flavor as cotton if not wool. But at the farmers' market they are still the same as they ever were, one of the great glories of the season. They're fat, they're full of almost meaty flavor and they are made for roasting and marinating, one of the most savory techniques of preservation, at least for the short haul. I learned how to do this from Jacques Pepin's "Everyday Cooking," published my second year in New York, and it's become a ritual every September, when peppers are at their best and priced best. Eight huge, fleshy ones yesterday cost me $6, slightly more than one pound of imported would in December. Magic formula is after the jump.

You just lay the peppers out on the broiler pan (foil-lined if you want an easier cleanup) and roast them, turning occasionally, until they are evenly charred on all sides. I do a couple of fresh jalapeños at the same time to jazz things up. Stick them in a brown bag to cool, which makes the skins easier to slide off, and then scrape out the seeds and slip the skins off. Cut the peppers into thin strips and put them into a bowl. Add a hefty clove or two of minced garlic and a big glug of olive oil and mix well. Add salt and pepper (or wait to do that until you eat them). Cover and refrigerate 'em overnight and you'll have the best topping for toast in the morning. We don't drink juice, so this is our annual huge hit of a.m. Vitamin C. Pepin, though, said his wife likes these peppers for lunch, spread on toasted baguette and topped with a couple of anchovies, and they work just as well as crostini with drinks (especially with a sliver of mozzarella between the bread and the peppers).

When I dragged out Pepin's book to read that, though, it was funny to see that he had to use green peppers for his recipe. Those, of course, were the only ones available when the cooking show the book was pegged to was being filmed, out of season in 1982.

by Regina Schrambling

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