Cherry tomatoes, green and red capsicum and red chillies are abundant in my garden, so this was a welcome inspiration when stuck for a quick dinner. The recipe was inspired by a beautiful cookbook that Donna gave me for my birthday called ITALIAN KITCHEN by Maxine Clark.
I cook with chillies often, but mostly, I keep them whole and safely intact…that is, until today. This recipe wanted them halved and deseeded! Now, I was under the impression that if you took out the seeds, out goes the fiery heat; this is not the case, as I found out the hard way, or at least not with these garden chillies. And having undertaken this with my fingers, they are still warm and fuzzy this morning. So what I had to do after chopping the deseeded chillies and adding them to the sauteing capsicum was to fish them all out again. Having successfully recovered 90 per cent, the sauce was still fiery but pretty amazing. So when cooking this, you must use your judgement and knowledge of the chillis available and your limitation of fiery spice.
fiery red pepper sauce
Serves 2
ingredients
1 sweet red pepper (capsicum)
1 large fresh red chilli, halved and deseeded
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
15 cherry tomatoes (or two big ripe tomatoes)
2 Tbsp freshly chopped basil
1 tsp jaggery/sugar
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
a handful of green olives (deseeded)
freshly grated parmesan cheese
preparation
1. Dice the pepper (capsicum) into medium pieces and finely chop the chillies (be careful and use your judgment as noted above).
2. Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the chillies and peppers; cook slowly for 20 minutes or until soft.
3. Dunk the tomatoes in boiling water for 10 seconds, slip off the skins, and chop the flesh coarsely.
4. Add the tomatoes, jaggery/sugar and season with salt and pepper – half cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes until well reduced and soft and thick.
5. Stir in the fresh basil and toss with your cooked pasta. Throw in a handful of roughly chopped green olives and parmesan cheese.
Enjoy!
Shared goodness by Stacey
