Charred Red Pepper Gratin
Charred red pepper gratin
In the best possible way my life has been kinda crazy lately. My daughter married her long time partner a couple of weeks ago and pre wedding parties and dinners coupled with overseas house guests meant I consumed an excessive amount of alcohol, too many coffees, too much fried food and a miniscule amount of fresh vegetables for close to a month.
The wedding was a wonderful celebration but now it’s time to return some discipline to my life, to slow down, to limit meat and dairy, booze and coffee, and once again mindfully plan and prepare meals of beautiful fresh vegetables.
Generally we consume a lot of vegetables, and recently we’ve been eating mostly vegetables, three times a day. When a new recipe idea crosses my path it will have been tested within a few days, tweaked to suit our taste then made again and again. My family is accustomed to my obsessive habits.
In the midst of all the pre wedding madness I picked up a reserved copy of Diana Henry’s “Simple” from our local library. The timing was perfect.
This recipe is adapted from that book. Henry suggests serving the gratin as a side dish to lamb, but we preferred it as the star of our meal. It was perfect with simple rustic accompaniments, crusty sourdough bread and a rocket salad with smoked almonds.
The leftover charred pepper mix was equally delicious the next day, served at room temperature as a bruschetta topping. I’ll be returning to this recipe regularly over summer.
Charred Red Pepper Gratin serves 2 as a light main meal
4 large fleshy red peppers
5 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
10g chopped pitted blacked olives
1 tablespoon salted capers, rinsed
about 2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves
1/4 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
20g stale sourdough crumbs
50g crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoon olive oil
Char the red peppers over a gas flame then seal inside a BPA free lidded plastic storage box to steam.
OR Rub the skins of the peppers with oil and grill until the skins are blackened and blistered then seal in a lidded plastic storage box to steam.
When the peppers are cool enough to handle peel off the skins and remove the seeds and membranes.
Pre heat the oven to 180C
Cut the pepper flesh into strips then place into a mixing bowl.
Add the olives, anchovies, capers, oregano, chilli and half of both the breadcrumbs and feta cheese.
Mix to combine then stir through 1 tablespoon of the olive oil.
Put the peppers into a shallow oiled ovenproof dish,
Mix together the remaining breadcrumbs and feta cheese and scatter over the top of the peppers.
Bake until bubbling and the breadcrumbs are browned, about 30 minutes.
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31 comments on “Charred Red Pepper Gratin”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
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What a special time for your family! COngrats to all!
Roasted red peppers, anchovies, capers, olives… What’s not to love? Sounds wonderful, Sandra, and I could easily see this dish serving as a meal’s main course. Bet the leftovers would make a good frittata the next day, too. 🙂
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Thanks John, it’s already made a number of appearances, totally delicious!
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Congratulations! Somehow I quit getting posts from you. Hopefully I’ve rectified this. I understand the extended periods of excessive food and drink. All fun, but a break is always necessary! Where are your red glasses?
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Thanks Mimi. Redspecs are now frames for reading glasses. I update my frames frequently so there have been a few other red incarnations since that old gravatar pic.
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OH! I guess I’m not as observant as I used to be!
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A lovely dish Sandra. I am glad you included those two fabulous, and non vegan, ingredients anchovies and fetta. Two ingredients that really lift a vegetable dish to centre stage.
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This slipped past me somehow so I apologise for the delay in responding. I agree that there are some ingredients that add a whole new dimensiion to vegetables, and for me anchovies are no1.
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I love anchovies. I am trying to find the large tin of anchovies, (750g) branded ‘Sunny’ and can’t locate them around my traps. any hints would be helpful from you or readers in Melbourne.
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Wish I could help, it’s not a brand I know, but I’ll keep my eyes open, hopefully someone will send you in the right direction. I usually use Delicius brand. My local deli has then in clip top jars
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Yummy
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Thanks Mal, I hope you try making it sometime
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What a wonderful family celebration it has been, by the sound of it, and how sensible you are to be pulling your diet back in line. Your health will thank you. This sounds yummy, and quite doable for me if I leave out the sourdough – perhaps cauliflower
‘breadcrumbs’ instead…?
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Yes it was full on Kate and I’m now feeling like I’ve been through the wringer so taking care of myself is now No 1 priority. Yes cauliflower might work. Sabiscuit said said she was going to try rice
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Congratulations to Leah.
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Thanks Glenda I’ll pass it on…
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Congrats to your daughter and her partner, indeed to the whole family. I think we must be living in parallel universes at the moment, Sandra, as this is very similar to something I’ve just made to go with fish. Your version looks and sounds delicious – with food like that, who misses meat? 🙂
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Me, sometimes. I’ve only discovered Diana Henry this year, she’s little know in Australia but I like her style enormously so one by one I’m devouring her books. Looking forward to seeing your similar dish
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Ah, love a gratin and this looks super. What a lovely time of celebration for you all. We too are eating a tonne of veggies after the excess of o/s travel and trying to regain some control before Chrissy….eek! Good luck!
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You too Cheery, I think we’re winning…
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Oh, congratulations to Leah(?). I am sure everyone had a wonderful time.
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Hi debi, yes me 🙂 was wonderful celebrations, thank you. xx
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😘😘😘
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We did it was a glorious celebration
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Vegetable gratins are favourites of ours and anything Diane Henry comes up with is worth exploring. You are brilliant using leftovers as bruschetta toppings. Vegetables are so wonderful here in Greece that we often leave out the meat in meals we have at home.
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Thanks Debi, this is a beauty, making it again tomorrow..
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Congrats to your daughter. We’ve just finished my daughter’s wedding celebrations as well. I’m going to call Christmas off this year if I can’t resurrect myself from a quivery mess on the floor 🙂
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Oh I hear you, too much excitement takes it out of you…
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Congratulations! Such lovely news for your daughter. I love this gratin and will be doing a rice version of it tonight. If I am not pressed for time, I might make some gluten free bread (flax meal and almond flour) just to add to it. I have been looking for an excuse to purchase anchovies. Thank you so much!!
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Thanks, Enjoy your dinner tonight, we loved it
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