Roast Romano Peppers with Cherry
Tomatoes, Yoghurt and Feta
These peppers are absolutely stunning. They add a pop of beautiful colour on a buffet or as part of a mezze; they are wonderful as a starter or light lunch, make a great accompaniment to a main course and are particularly easy as they are best served warm or at room temperature, so there's no last minute attention required. The recipe is for those lovely long, pointy red peppers with rather thinner flesh and skin than the more usual bell peppers, but if bell peppers are all you can find, that's fine, but see my Helpful Hints below.
Ingredients
4 long, pointy peppers
200g cherry tomatoes, halved
Olive oil to drizzle
Dried chilli flakes
Full fat Greek yoghurt
1 clove garlic
Fresh herbs: dill/parsley/fennel fronds
Feta Cheese
Chopped pistachios
Method
Oven 180c, gas 6
Halve the peppers straight through the stalk and remove all seeds and white pithy bits
Put the peppers halves in a single layer in a roasting pan, throw the cherry tomatoes on top and sprinkle over the chilli flakes
Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper
Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the peppers are soft and tender
Stir into the yoghurt any delicious juices which may have oozed out of the peppers during cooking
Finely grate the garlic and stir it with some seasoning into the yoghurt together with the pepper juices, see above. The yoghurt should be a drizzling consistency. Add a little milk if it is too thick.
Drizzle the yoghurt over the peppers and generously crumble over feta cheese.
Sprinkle over chopped pistachios and your chosen fresh herbs.
If using thicker skinned, coarser fleshed bell peppers, put the whole peppers just as they are on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 40-45 minutes until they are collapsing and soft.
Transfer the cooked peppers to a bowl and seal it with cling film so that the peppers cool in their steam
Sprinkle the halved cherry tomatoes with a few chilli flakes, then roast in the oven for 10 minutes and allow them to cool too
Slide the now loose skins off the cool peppers, de-seed and de-gunk them, catching the delicious juices.
Transfer the peppers to a serving dish, scatter the tomatoes on top and season
Stir some of the pepper juices which oozed out during cooking into the yoghurt to bring it to drizzling consistency and pour any remaining juices over the peppers.
Grate the garlic into the yoghurt, stir in seasoning and drizzle the yoghurt over the pepper pieces
Generously crumble over the feta cheese and sprinkle the chopped pistachios and fresh herbs on top.
Helpful Hints
Click for more quick and easy light lunches and starters