Summer in an Italian farmhouse kitchen means vegetables, and lots of them. After the fave, green beans and peas of the spring, arrive the intense colours of summer: crisp purple lettuce, a slew of different varieties of tomatoes (each type grown for a particular purpose – for salads, for making sauces, for preserving), courgettes with their delicate yellow flowers, aubergines, bright bell peppers and heaps of fragrant basil with leaves as big as the palm of your hand.
Signora Carolina grows all these things and more: she has never eaten a bought tomato in her life, or an aubergine that hasn’t grown in a field nearby.
She works with one eye on the sky, hoping the weather will hold: it needs to be hot enough to ensure the tomatoes are concentrated and sweet, but not so hot that the leaves burn in the heat and the fruit shrivels. Every so often a good thunderstorm is welcome as water can be a problem during the long, hot summer months, but too
much rain means the tomatoes don’t preserve well. As with many things in life, there’s a lot of hard work then crossing of fingers.
While nature is generous, however, this abundance of vegetables is put to good use.
Aubergines and peppers are cut into strips, cooked in vinegar, and dried in the sun. Then they are squeezed dry of any remaining liquid and preserved in olive oil with garlic and herbs. Still more peppers are turned into pappacelle, whole peppers cooked quickly in vinegar and preserved pickled in huge jars. Needless to say, absolutely nothing is wasted.
But in the meantime, here are some ideas on how to enjoy these wonderful ingredients while they’re still fresh…
Ingredients
(serves four people)
1 kg red, green and yellow peppers; 150 g black and green olives;
1 tbsp capers, rinsed; 5-10 anchovies in oil, depending on size;
pinch dried oregano; extra virgin olive oil;
50 g dried breadcrumbs.
Preparation
For something that’s so easy to make, this is ridiculously good.
This side dish can be eaten warm or cold, and can easily be prepared in advance and cooked at the last minute. Many people don’t like the idea of anchovies, but here they almost completely melt with the heat and leave behind a wonderfully complex salty flavour. Cut the peppers into largish strips and place in an oiled ovenproof dish.
Mix in the olives and capers, sprinkle with the oregano then arrange the anchovies on top. (The olives, capers and anchovies provide enough salt for the dish, but should you decide not to use the anchovies, you might have to add just a pinch of salt to compensate.)
Drizzle with olive oil then sprinkle breadcrumbs on top. Bake in an oven preheated to 200° C for about 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the peppers are tender.
