This salad is especially good made with peppers roasted over a wood or charcoal fire.

　　

Ingredients

4 servings

　　3 or 4 thick-fleshed bell peppers or pimentos

　　1 garlic clove

　　1 tablespoon olive oil

　　1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

　　Salt and fresh-ground black pepper

　　Several sprigs of marjoram or basil

　　Garlic croutons (page 37; optional)

　　

Step 1

Roast, peel, and seed the peppers as directed above. Cut the peppers into strips. Peel the garlic and pound it to a purée in a mortar. Mix the garlic with the oil and vinegar, combine with the peppers, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Chop the marjoram leaves or cut the basil leaves into ribbons, and add to the peppers. Let the peppers marinate for a while for the flavors to come together. Serve as a salad on its own, as part of an antipasto plate, or with garlic croutons.

　　

Skinning Peppers

Step 2

Roasting and peeling peppers intensifies their natural sweetness and adds smoky, toasty flavors. They can be oven-roasted or charred over an open flame.

　　

Step 3

Choose ripe, sweet, thick-fleshed peppers and rub them with olive oil. Roast them in an earthenware dish or a roasting pan for 30 to 40 minutes in a 400°F oven, turning occasionally, until the skins are blistered and pulling away from the flesh. Remove the peppers from the oven and put them in a paper bag or a closed container so that they steam as they cool down. Th e steaming helps loosen the skins and makes it easier to slip off the skins with your hands. When peeled, slit the peppers open and lay them flat, cut side up, on a cutting board. Cut away the stem ends, and scrape out the membranes and seeds. Turn over and scrape away any remaining bits of charred skin.

　　

Step 4

Alternatively, peppers can be roasted over an open flame or under the broiler, or grilled over a hot charcoal fire. Keep a close eye on them and turn with tongs as the skins blister and blacken. Let cool, skin, and clean them as above.

　　Cooks' Note

　　If you like, spice up the salad with anchovy fillets, capers, mozzarella cheese, onion, or black olives.

　　In the Green Kitchen by Alice Waters. Copyright © 2010. Published by Clarkson Potter. All Rights Reserved.Named the most influential figure in the past 30 years of the American kitchen by Gourmet magazine, ALICE WATERS is the owner of Chez Panisse restaurant and the author of nine cookbooks.