Marinated Roasted Red Peppers

This is so simple, three bachelors in a Stuy Town apartment can make it. I know: I taught them.

You will need:

Red/yellow peppers (these don’t need to be perfectly brand-new fresh, even wrinkly peppers are good for roasting)
Garlic
Good olive oil
Basil (fresh leaves are best, but dried is ok, too)
Salt, pepper, hot pepper flakes

Give your peppers a good rinse. Preheat the oven to broil. Place the peppers in a shallow baking dish, relatively close to the broiler. You’ll need to check on the peppers every few minutes to make sure they’re not on fire/exploding, but anything short of that is ok. In fact, the peppers are much easier to peel when the skin is thoroughly blackened. Once one side is blackened, turn the peppers a 1/4 turn. Repeat until the peppers are evenly charred.

While the peppers are cooking, get out a serving dish. In the dish smash up a bunch of garlic, at least one small clove per pepper. Add a healthy splash of olive oil, basil and hot pepper and stir. This should smell delicious if you’ve done it properly.

Remove peppers from heat, and let them cool a few minutes before trying to handle them. They’re much easier to peel after they cool, so take it easy, maybe have a glass of wine. When peeling the peppers, the stems will come off. Watch out because there is steam trapped inside the peppers which could burn your delicate fingers.

Now comes the best part: remove the skin. It’s like peeling a sunburn while simultaneously playing with play dough. This may be the best tactile sensation there is.  The peppers themselves should readily pull apart into longitudinal strips.  Lay these in the garlic marinade and give them a good stir. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I usually put the peppers I make on a sandwich but you can set them out as hors d’oeuvres, or make tiny amuses-bouches by spearing a pepper, a tiny ball of fresh mozzarella, and a basil leaf on a toothpick or skewer.

(Photo via loscheiner)