Enjoy the sweetness of roasted red peppers in September’s kitchen

September in the kitchen

Roasted Stuffed Peppers

The peppers are just about ready – they’ve been really slow this year so we’re going to really enjoy them. I love roasting peppers as it brings out the sweetness of flavour.

I’ve used the long Romano peppers for this recipe – the pics don’t look quite as good as they tend to flop a bit but they taste great!!

Serves2 hungry people or 4 as a starter or snack

4 large red or yellow Romano peppers

Good glug olive oil plus more to drizzle

3 small courgettes, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1x 125g ball mozzarella

100g firm goats cheese

2 tablespoons chopped mint leaves

3 spring onions, finely sliced

Zest and juice of half a lemon

8 cocktail sticks

Handful black olives, pitted

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

 

• Place the whole peppers on a baking tray and pop in a preheated oven 180C/fan160/gas 4/350F for about 5 minutes until they have plumped up and are slightly softened. Take out from the heat and leave to cool for a while.
• Carefully cut a slit down the length of the pepper so that you can remove the seeds. Do this carefully with a teaspoon and scrape them out, leaving the stalk in place.
• Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the courgettes. Cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes until well softened then add the crushed garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes. Leave to cool for a few minutes.
• Tear the mozzarella into small pieces into a large bowl then crumble in the goat’s cheese. Add in the chopped mint, spring onion slices then the lemon zest and juice and finally the courgette. Mix everything together really well.
• Use your fingers to stuff the peppers, pushing the filling right down to the ends of the peppers. Don’t overfill though as you should be able to just about close the peppers. Secure the top of each pepper together with a couple of cocktail sticks. Drizzle with a little olive oil.
• Pop back in the oven  180/fan 160/gas 4 for about 30-40 minutes until the peppers are browning and the filling melted and bubbling hot.
• Chop the olives and scatter over the top along with the parsley.
• Serve immediately with a crisp green salad.