roasted peppers stuffed with tomatoes and garlic

I fell in love with this recipe the minute I saw Simon Hopkinson make it on his TV show “The Good Cook”. Slow roasted peppers, stuffed with cherry tomatoes and garlic, finished off with anchovies and basil. He had me drooling on my couch.

I checked and found the recipe in his book ‘Roast Chicken and Other Stories‘, which is right up there amongst my all time favourite cookbooks. In 2005 it was declared ‘the most useful cookbook of all time’, and I constantly refer to it when I’m looking for inspiration.

This is his recipe for Piedmontese Peppers. In the book he stuffs the peppers with a whole ripe tomato, and on TV he stuffed them with cherry tomatoes. As I had a lot of the latter lying around, I went this route.

The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity. Its all about the marriage of 6 ingredients that go so well together. It is important to use really fresh produce and the best quality olive oil you can lay your hands on.

Red peppers+tomatoes+garlic+anchovies+olive oil+ basil = sunshiny summer heaven.

Make as many as you need, and half a pepper will serve one person as a side dish.

• Recipe on Drizzle and Dip

However you do decide to serve them, you will need some nice crunchy bread to mop up the juices.

They would be perfect for a light supper with a salad, or served cold on a platter at a braai / barbecue.

I made quite a few and so had leftovers to nibble on over the next few days. They were fantastic chopped up and added to a tuna salad and mixed in with a frittata with goats cheese.

I look forward to connecting with you again in the future.