I return from the shops with a bag of peppers in turning shades of orange and red, plump fruits begging to be stuffed and baked.
I like to roast them until their flesh is soft and melting. When peppers meet the heat of the oven, their sweetness really comes to the fore. Peppers are not to be hurried. They take a while to become completely tender and I often give them a few minutes in boiling water before slipping them into a roasting tin and a hot oven.
You need to pull out the stops with the filling for peppers: onions sautéed slowly until sweet and nut-brown, coarsely minced pork with plenty of fat, browned until sticky and seasoned with garlic, rosemary and parmesan, the filling lightened with tomatoes and a handful of coarse white breadcrumbs. Maybe pine kernels or raisins, too. You could stir in some cooked white haricot beans as well, should you wish the pork to go a little further.
The roasted peppers are, perhaps surprisingly, good when eaten cool – though not fridge-cold – with a salad of potatoes and crisp, chunky-cut cucumber with dill.
Sometimes they come as a warm salad themselves, straight from the oven: outer skin peeled away, scarlet flesh anointed with a classic dressing of olive oil, basil and balsamic vinegar or tossed with white beans, anchovy and red wine vinegar. But for now, my peppers are stuffed and baked, singing sweetly in their roasting tin, a supper for high summer or, dare I say it, early autumn.
Pork and peppers
No matter how long you roast a green pepper for, there is always a back note of bitterness, so I choose the sweeter red or orange.
Halve the fruit, then cut out any hard inner core and shake out the seeds. They bring nothing to the party. The hollows are important to take the filling, so if you blanch them as I suggest, then keep an eye on their progress. If they cook for too long in the water, they will collapse, and you can’t stuff a flat pepper. Pull them out of the water when the flesh has slightly softened but is still keeping its shape – about 10 minutes. Serves 3. Ready in 1.5 hours
olive oil 3 tbsp
pork 350g, coarsely minced
garlic 3 cloves
rosemary 3 bushy sprigs
red or orange peppers 3
onion 1, large
tomatoes 400g
breadcrumbs 50g
parmesan 6 tbsp, grated
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Warm 2 tbsp of the oil in a shallow pan over a moderately high heat, add the minced pork, press it down with the back of a spoon and let it brown. It is best not to move the meat until the underside has started to colour. Peel and finely crush the garlic. Finely chop the sprigs of rosemary.
While the meat browns, put a deep pan of water on to boil. Halve the peppers and pull out their seeds and core. Lower them into the boiling water and let them cook for about 7-10 minutes until tender, but firm enough to keep their shape. Lift them from the water and drain.
Break up the pork into small pieces with a spoon, stir in the crushed garlic and chopped rosemary and continue browning for a few minutes. When all is sizzling and evenly coloured, lift the meat out with a draining spoon and transfer to a shallow bowl.
Peel and finely chop the onion. Return the pan to the heat, stir in the onion and leave to cook, adding a little more oil should you need. When the onions are soft and pale gold, return the pork and any juices to the pan that have appeared during resting.
Roughly chop the tomatoes and stir them into the pork. Let the filling simmer for about 10 minutes until glossy and fragrant then stir in the breadcrumbs. Place the drained peppers, cut-side up, in a roasting tin or baking dish and fill with the pork and aromatics and their juices. Scatter a little parmesan on each pepper, then bake for about 35 minutes until sizzling.
Potatoes, cucumber, dill and mustard
The contrast between the soft, almost fudgy potatoes and crisp, refreshing slices of cucumber is what is so very pleasing about this salad. With its seasoning of mustard and juniper, this is the one to accompany slices of leftover Sunday roast on a Monday. Serves 4. Ready in 30 minutes
waxy-fleshed potatoes 500g
cucumber half a medium-sized
juniper berries 6
caster sugar a good pinch (no more)
cider vinegar 2 tbsp
dill 2 tbsp, chopped
Dijon mustard 2 tbsp
olive oil 8 tbsp
Put a large pan of water on to boil. Salt it lightly and add the potatoes. Let them cook in the boiling water for 12-15 minutes until they can be easily pierced with a skewer.
Peel the cucumber, cut it in half lengthways and remove the wet, seedy core with a teaspoon. Slice the cucumber into thick pieces, roughly 2cm in width.
Make the dressing: first crush the juniper berries using a pestle and mortar. Put the sugar and vinegar in an empty jam jar, grind in a little black pepper, a pinch of sea salt, the crushed juniper berries and chopped dill, then add the mustard and oil and shake thoroughly to combine the ingredients in a thick dressing.
Drain the potatoes and slice them thickly – I prefer slices about 1cm thick – then put them into a serving bowl together with the cucumber, pour over the dressing and stir gently.
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