Spicy, sweet, rich, tangy . . .
By mid-August, my parents’ kitchen is overflowing with home-grown peppers. As head gardener, my mother cans, jams, and sauces most of the extra produce they grow, but peppers are my father’s forte. He freezes the small, spicy pimentos, stir-fries the large, mild pequillos or, if he’s especially overloaded, cook them all down into his saucy pepper skillet.
Pepper skillet is exactly what it sounds like. My father chops up 3 or 4 big peppers and tosses them into a pan with a glug of oil, where they stew down into a luscious saucy spread. Spicy, sweet, tangy, rich—it’s perfect for dolloping on a piece of crispy bread or—as my parents do—mixed wild rice and ground beef.
When I asked him what he puts in it, my father was as vague as an Italian nonna (“Oh, it’s very simple—just a couple of peppers, sometimes I spike it with a little cayenne . . .”) so I recreated this largely based on vague taste memories. Lucky for me, my father was right about it being so simple:
Saucy peppers spooned over crispy crunchy toast, dotted with chunks of goat cheese and sprigs of fresh basil. The toast adds great texture to the soft, jammy spread, while the goat cheese and basil bring tang and freshness that livens up the rich sweet pepper.
Necessity often leads to some amazing creations. In this case, a glut of late-summer peppers led my father to a truly fantastic way to cook them, and a dish that I make even when I don’t have any peppers that I need to use. Wherever you get your peppers—the garden, the local bodega, your big-box grocery store—I hope you’ll find a few this summer to cook down into a saucy spread that you can slather on toast. It’s simple, but I promise it’s one of the most delicious things you’ll eat in a long time.
Enjoy!
Saucy Pepper Pan Toast
(Serves 4)
2 tbsp. olive oil
3 bell peppers, preferably a mix of red, orange, and yellow, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ tsp. kosher salt, plus additional as needed
3 fresh thyme sprigs
¼ tsp. red chili flakes
4 thick multigrain bread slices, toasted
¼ cup crumbled goat cheese
Basil leaves, for serving
Method
In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add peppers, onion, garlic, and salt, and cook until slightly softened, 4-5 minutes. Add thyme and chili flakes and continue to cook until peppers have completely softened and turned jammy, 20-25 minutes, adding water a few tablespoons at a time if vegetables begin to stick or brown. Taste and season with additional salt if necessary.
Spoon melted peppers over toast, and top with goat cheese and fresh basil.
Originally posted August 13, 2022.
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