When I came to this chapter in the cookbook I was struck by the equal simplicity and importance of this idea. When you prepare a food, through roasting, seasoning, blistering, smoking, etc, before using it in your cooking or in a final dish, you find an opportunity to build flavor in a way that you can’t when you start with all fresh or raw ingredients. As a lover of condiments, which build flavor in a dish after it’s been cooked, I equally appreciate the making of ingredients. Roasting peppers under a broiler brings out their inherent sweetness and smokiness, and there must be a million and one great things that can be done with roasted red peppers. Once you make them from scratch, you’ll probably never go back to the store bought kind, unless in a pinch of course. So go ahead and roast up a whole batch of peppers to keep on hand. Put them on sandwiches, in salads, on homemade pizza and most definitely to make my Roasted Red Pepper Pesto and Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Sauce.

Homemade Roasted Red Peppers

Red Bell Peppers
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

When it comes to roasted red peppers, surely you could use the store bought kind, but roasting your own is even more delicious and doesn't take long at all. Thoroughly wash and take off any store stickers from your peppers. I like to use Red Hollands, if you can find them. These are a beautiful bright red variety of red bell pepper, but regular works just great too. Turn your oven on to the high broil setting and let it heat up.

Cut the stem off the top of your pepper and remove the inner core along with all seeds. Place peppers on a baking sheet and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. Once oven is hot, put peppers in. You'll need to babysit them a little bit from here on out: every 5-10 minutes, poke your head in the oven and check that the skin of the pepper has bubbled and gotten slightly charred on the side facing up. Once it has, use tongs or a clean oven mitt to rotate the pepper, allowing it to char on the next side. Continue to rotate and turn both peppers until they have bubbled and slightly charred all around. Keep in mind - this does not mean burnt! You just want spots of charred skin - not a completely burnt pepper!

Once the peppers are done roasting, take them out of the oven and immediately move the peppers to a tupperware with a lid just slightly ajar, allowing steam to accumulate inside. This allows for the pepper to cool down enough to handle, and for the skin to become more easy to peel away from the rest of the pepper. Once cooled, take the peppers out of the tupperware and remove the skin. Cut into slices and your peppers are ready. Use immediately, or cool thoroughly and place in an airtight container in the fridge.