Food & entertaining

VEGETABLES: PEPPERS PIEDMONTESE

Vegetables: Peppers Piedmontese
SERVES 6
PREPARATION 20 MINS
COOKING 35 MINS
8 ripe tomatoes
4 red peppers
4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
12 basil leaves, torn
6 good quality tinned anchovies, drained and chopped
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle
2 balls good quality buffalo mozzarella, torn in small pieces
12 small black olives
1. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Using a small knife remove the woody core from the top of each tomato, then turn upside down and mark a small cross on the base. Drop the tomatoes into the boiling water. As soon as the skin starts to peel off, remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon and leave to cool slightly.
2. Heat the oven to 180°C (gasmark 4). Halve the peppers lengthways and remove the core, seeds and white pith. Lay the peppers skin-side down in a shallow baking tray.
3. When the tomatoes are cool, peel, halve and remove the seeds using a teaspoon, then roughly chop the flesh. Fill the pepper halves with the tomato, garlic slices, basil leaves and anchovies. Drizzle with oil and season with pepper. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until the peppers are soft and slightly blackened around the edges, but still holding their shape.
4. Allow the roasted peppers to cool to room temperature, then arrange them on a platter and scatter over the mozzarella and olives. Drizzle with a little more oil.