French living – Myfrenchkitchen

We still have sweet peppers in the potager and they are super sweet and colourful. This will probably be the last batch for this season. So I decided to make piperade which we love. I do it a bit different than the original way that comes from the southwest in France, particularly the Basque region. I make mine seperately in the oven and mix it all together at the last minute before serving. Its a bit less juicy and saucy and the flavors of all the ingredients harmonize without losing their individuality. We especially enjoy it on rustic toasted country bread for a lunch.

Piperade with homegrown peppers

Recipe:

4 large pepper of different colours.
On large onion
A big handful of cherry tomatoes, or grape tomatoes, cut in half
4 cloves of garlic, cleaned and lightly squashed
salt and pepper
Olive oil
Fresh thyme
Raspberry flavoured balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 180 degr C.
Wash the peppers and slice into chunks, or thin slices if you prefer. Add to an oven pan with fresh thyme and drizzle liberally with olive oil.
Clean the onion and cut into medium chunks. Add to another oven pan .
Wash the cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes and slice in half. Add the tomatoes to the onion and add the cleaned and squashed garlic cloves.
Roast the vegetables in the oven pans until tender and slithgly charred, for about 30 minutes. Take care not to burn the peppers. If youve sliced them thinly, they will roast quicker.
Remove from the oven, mix the vegetables together, drizzle with more olive oil, season with salt and pepper and drizzle finally with some raspberry flavouredbalsamic vinegar.
Serve warm or at room temperature with crusty bread or as a side with meat or fish.

Serves about 4 people as side dish

A pinch of salt:

Enjoy with slices of toasted whole wheat bread.
Serve as a side with fish or chicken.
Add tarragon instead of thyme if you serve it with chicken.
A full vegetarian meal.
For a meat version, add grilled sliced chorizo before serving.
If you slice the peppers into thin slices, they will roast quicker, about 20 minutes.
Add some piment d’espelette chilli peppers if you’d like it spicy.

I prefer semi dried tomatoes to fully dried ones. They are much more flavorful than the often leathery and chewy dried tomatoes. In a salad they are unbeatable, with pasta unforgettable and as a crostini for apero with a glass of wine , just delightful. I don’t give quantities in this recipe, it depends on how many tomatoes you have on hand. I used tomatoes from our potager which is bountiful at the moment. So come on, make your summer linger a bit longer and dry some seasonal tomatoes, from your own vegetable patch or from the market!

Recipe:

plum or roma tomatoes
salt and pepper
olive oil and sunflower oil
dried provencal herbs

Preheat the oven to 130 degrees C.
Line baking trays with baking paper.
Wash and dry the tomatoes, cut in half and remove the seeds.
Place the tomatoes in rows, cut side up on to the baking trays.
Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Bake for about 2 hours or until the tomatoes start to curl up at the sides. Turn the heat down to 100 degr C and bake for another hour. Keep an eye on the tomatoes from now on so they don’t burn.
Remove from the oven, leave to cool and add tightly packed to glass jars with lids and fill with olive oil or a mix of olive oil and sunflower oil, Store in fridge. ( Will keep for about 2 weeks) Use the oil for cooking or vinaigrette.

In the potager.