We can now find peppers all year round, but it’s only in summer that they’re really tasty and fragrant.
They are an incredible source of vitamins; the pepper contains more vitamin C than lemons and oranges, as well as a lot of vitamin A.
The recipe for peperonata, of a legendary heaviness, is one of the most vivid memories I have of the holidays spent with Grandmother Violetta at the seaside in Ostia. As a child I didn’t like them, but I loved watching grandmother when she prepared them. As an adult I’m now very fond of them.
The traditional recipe calls for peppers with skin, but within the family we’ve always preferred to peel them first to make them easier to digest.
Roman-style peppers
- Preparation time: 60 minutes
- Ingredients for 6 servings
- Difficulty: Easy recipe
- Ingredients
- 4 yellow/red/green peppers
- 1 onion
- 4 San Marzano tomatoes
- Oil to taste
- Salt to taste
- Instructions
- Roast the peppers, peel them, and remove the core with the seeds and internal filaments. Cut them into strips.
- Cut the tomatoes into strips, removing the core with the seeds.
- In a saucepan with plenty of oil, gently fry the sliced onion, add the tomatoes, and cook for about ten minutes. Add the peppers, cover them, and cook over moderate heat for at least twenty minutes, adding a little water if necessary.
- Season with salt and leave to rest covered in a pan for at least thirty minutes before serving.
If served as an appetizer, they must be at room temperature.
Tips to ensure the success of the dish:
- The green pepper is nothing more than the immature version of the yellow or red pepper, so it’s a bit sourer. In this dish I like to use green pepper, but if you want a sweeter dish it can be made with yellow and red peppers.
- They can be roasted on embers or on the gas flame. Before peeling them and removing the inside with seeds and filaments, they can be left closed for a few minutes in a plastic food bag, in order to peel them more easily.
Granny Violetta with my cousin Simone
