Pepper Pasta

Hey there!

 

And once again I am in Italy. This time however not on a school trip to explore an unknown place but rather on a trip to a place which basically feels like home to me. I have been returning to this one little medieval town in central Tuscany ever since I had only just been old enough to walk.

One of the first things my family likes to do when arriving tired and exhausted from the long drive down south is going to the local market, which takes place every Monday morning. In the past my sister and I used to spend ages wandering between the different booths, whether they were selling jewellery, hats, beach towels or something bizarre such as cleaning utensils. Nowadays we have outgrown the urge of checking out every single product sold on this humble little market, which really only consists of about five booths selling random nick-nacks. But then there are the two booths, which still make the trip to the market worthwhile. Not surprisingly I am talking about the two food booths selling fresh local products. The first stop usually takes place at the vegetable booth where we aim to stock up on vegetables and fruit for the next week, which then happens to mysteriously disappear in not less then two days. After buying a bunch of the freshest and most delicious produce you can find in the area we proceed to our next place of desire, a horror for any vegan however a delight for any cheese, fish and Parma ham lover. The two guys selling those delights have the bluest eyes in the whole Maremma and are probably one of the reasons we return in such faithful manner every single year. Despite the blue eyes all of their products are best quality and truly delicious. We always stock up on Pecorino and Parmesan and this year we even brought up the courage to buy one of the strange salted fishes we were always gazing at but never knew what they were. Now however we found out that we are dealing with baccalá (salted cod fish) a delicacy which is mostly prepared in Europe´s southern countries, such as Italy or Portugal.

 

Nevertheless the ingredient to the dish I´m going to cook today isn´t extraordinary by any means, just some simple sweet peppers. The ones I bought are obviously just a tad more delicious than the ones from the usual supermarket and the fact that I picked them out myself from a vegetable booth on a Tuscan market increases their taste by around hundred times. My sister was asking for a Pasta dish and since we had those lovely peppers on hand I decided to somehow incorporate those. I also spotted some strange looking little green peppers at the supermarket, which I therefore wanted to include as well. They are actually called frigitelli peppers, though if you can´t find them I recommend using the same amount of ordinary green peppers. Besides peppers I also used some rocket, olives, garlic, an onion and a lot of pepperoncino, to give this dish a spicy twist.

To avoid the pepper skins in the dish I roasted them in the oven prior to preparing the sauce. After around 30 minutes in the oven the skin of the big peppers peeled of easily, the little ones however I left as they were, since their skin was much thinner. Besides the baking time this dish is thrown together very quickly. When your peppers are out of the oven you can be sure to have dinner ready in the following twenty minutes.

The creation turned out to be absolutely delicious. I find that the sweet taste of the peppers complemented perfectly with the spicy touch owing to the lot of garlic and pepperoncino as well as the rocket I added.

Now I can only tell you to get some peppers and pasta and start cooking this lovely Pasta dish inspired by the Tuscan vibe I am experiencing right at this moment.

 

Ingredients (for three people)

 

• 3 big sweet peppers (red and yellow)
• 250 g frigitelli peppers (or normal green ones)
• 70 g rocket
• 150g black olives
• approx. 180g pasta ( I used wholewheat)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 red onion
• salt
• ½ – 1tsp pepperoncino flakes

 

1.Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

 

2. Peel the garlic cloves, cut your peppers in half and remove the stems, the little ones I left in one piece though

 

3. Put peppers and garlic on a lined baking sheet, bake for 30 minutes

 

4. While your peppers and garlic are roasting slice your red onion and the olives.

5. When you take the peppers out of the oven remove as much of the skin as possible and slice them into thin strips

 

6. In a frying pan heat up one tablespoon of olive oil and brig the pasta water to a boil

 

7.When the oil is hot add the sliced onion, the garlic cloves ( thanks to their time the oven you can just brake them apart with your cooking spoon) and ½ – 1 tsp of pepperoncino flakes, fry until the onions have softened and developed some colour

 

8. Then add the sliced and peeled peppers and the olives you sliced earlier, don´t forget to check on your pasta water, depending on your stove it might already be boiling, if so salt it and add your paste

9. While the pasta is boiling cook the pepper sauce over medium heat, then prior to draining the pasta take about 6 tablespoons of the water and add it to the peppers, then drain

 

10. Add the Pasta as well as the rocket to the frying pan and mix it well until everything is distributed evenly.

 

 

Voila, a simple and delicious Vegan Pasta dish. However if you happen to eat animal products I can only recommend adding a few shavings of Pecorino on top of the pasta, this gives it an even better flavour and adds just that little something secial. Well now I can only mention it once again, it is divine and you will definitely adore it, so go on, start cooking.

Bisous

Fanny, the foodie