Recipes
Roasted Red Romano Peppers with Tomato, Basil and Garlic
Fresh, versatile and summery.
Ingredients
- 8 Red Romano pepper (you can use regular peppers too)
- 1 large tomato
- 4 sprigs basil leaves
- 2 cloves garlic
- 75ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Sea Salt and fresh milled black pepper
Method
- Wash and trim the tops from the red pepper. I like to trim a little extra off and plant the cut tops with seeds into soil. Cut the peppers in half lengthways and arrange in a roasting tray. Wash and cut the tomato into 1cm sized pieces and equally distribute into the red pepper ‘boats’.
- Peel and thinly slice the garlic, chop the basil and add both to the peppers. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle over the olive oil.
- Roast in a hot oven for 25 minutes, making sure to get the peppers to colour nicely, this gives a lovely caramel note to the flavour of the dish. These peppers make a great dish for anti pasti or perfect with a green salad.
For the planting of the pepper tops, loosen the seeds slightly in their cup and place into a hole dug into soil. I put my soil in old compostable mushroom containers. Keep the container indoors while the cold nights still roll in, but then place the peppers on a sunny windowsill during the day. Keep them lightly watered. My peppers usually take 3 weeks to germinate and begin to show through the soil. Let them continue to get strong and tall before placing out in a more robust growing environment. Peppers like sunshine and you’ll need insect pollinators to get the flowers to become red peppers.