One thing I don’t like to do is buy food that I know I can make myself. It’s my inner evolutionary instinct for self-sufficiency, I guess. One of those foods that I rather make instead of buying is roasted bell peppers. Not only is it cheaper to make your own, but FAR tastier than their jarred counterpart. Roasting fresh bell peppers will yield a sweet, nutty, smokey flesh that can play the lead role or just be in the background of many dishes. One of my favorite ways to eat roasted peppers is with fresh mozzarella, I’m talking the real good quality stuff made fresh at a local salumeria. Just sprinkle some sea salt, cracked black pepper, and a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top and you have yourself an indulgent little appetizer.
Prep time: 2 mins Cook time: 10-15 minsGet yourself:
- 4-6 Red bell peppers
- 1 Clove fresh garlic smashed
- 1 Clove roasted garlic
- 1t kosher salt
- 1t black pepper
- 4T Good quality olive oil
- Large Ziploc freezer bag or something to let the peppers cool in
- Mason jar, 1 pint or quart depending on how many peppers you roast
Let’s roast some peppers!
Find yourself some nice big bell peppers with thick flesh
Remove stickers, rinse, dry
Line a cookie tray with foil and place peppers side by side
Set oven rack about 5 inches under broiler and turn broiler on
Pop under the broiler
Keep oven door slightly ajar using an oven mitt
Allow skin to blister and blacken
Remove from oven and turn peppers over
Blister and blacken entire outside of pepper
When peppers are evenly blistered and blackened…
Pop them into a Ziploc freezer bag or glass bowl
Seal bag or cover bowl and allow peppers to cool for ~30mins
While peppers cool, prep your jar that you’ll be storing peppers in
Smash one clove of garlic and remove skin
Pop into jar
If you have some…add one clove roasted garlic to jar
Peel skin from flesh then remove core and seeds
Dump peppers into a bowl with juices that collected while cooling
Tear flesh into strips
Pour the strips of roasted peppers and juice into jar
Pour a few tablespoons of good quality olive oil into jar
Add s&p
Stir gently to mix everything together
There you have it…
Your very own homemade jar of the best roasted peppers…
Ever
Period
Great pictures! And lots of memories for me… I used to make these with my mom and my grandma and my greatgrandma. No oven involved, especially in summer you don’t want to heat up your house. On a gas stove place them over a heat diffuser and brown them all over; on an electric stove put them directly onto the coil, just make sure you use medium-low setting, you don’t want to char them.
Like Elizabeth said a bowl or a pot with lid would do too – also, sprinkle some salt over them while steaming inside, it’ll help. Don’t let them cool completely, just enough so you can handle them, otherwise they get too intense charring taste.
Also, I think the garlic overpowers a bit the taste of pepper – well, I’m a lover of that taste so I don’t really want anything to compete with it. That’s why I use just a light dressing of salt, olive oil and good vinegar. The vinegar also helps with storing for more weeks in the fridge.
Anyway, excellent job here showing people how easy can be to make really great food at home!
Thanks for a great tutorial on roasting peppers! Your instructions were clear and your pics had my mouth watering.
Usually we never need to jar our roasted red peppers because we end up eating them all.
A bowl covered with a small plate will also let the peppers steam and release their skins quite nicely.
No. Really. Sweet.
Don’t have to convince me about roasted veggies – love them! Great post and pics, as usual!