Table of contents:

Peperonata: 10 dilemmas to solve
Peperonata: 10 dilemmas to solve

Video: Peperonata: 10 dilemmas to solve

Video: Peperonata: 10 dilemmas to solve
Video: Sautéing Potatoes 🥔 For Peperonata Calabrese 🇮🇹👌#italiancooking #PeperonataCalabrese #autumndishes 2024, March
Anonim

If, in a foodie club, you find yourself talking about recipe of the peperonata, procedures, variants, interpretations, even dogmas would emerge: as many as there are participants in the discussion, raised to the tenth power.

And if, putacaso, one of you were not familiar with the preparation, he would be stunned, convinced that everything is valid and the opposite of everything.

Of course, in the kitchen, especially in the home one, it is often a bit like that. But in short: if you want to sort out the doubts, to get an idea of what is best according to your taste (true and only judge to listen to), here is a roundup of dilemmas, crucial questions and their possible solutions.

1. What color?

A pepper, it's a pepper, it's a pepper. Or not. Because in the case of this vegetable, color matters.

The red, especially if dark, corresponds to an intense, almost spicy taste. The full yellow is that of the sweetest and gentlest peppers, while if it is tinged with green, or the vegetable is entirely green, it takes on bitter shades.

I, who don't like bitter much, don't look for it in peperonata and, indeed, aim to obtain a soft sweetness.

Therefore, I generally mix red and yellow peppers that balance each other giving a balanced whole in flavor and pleasant in color.

If, of course, you love intense notes, add the greens too, perhaps in smaller quantities than the other two.

Stewed peppers
Stewed peppers

2. Flaps, strips or chunks?

The flap is as long as the whole vegetable, or at least divided in half, and two or three fingers wide. The strip is about one cm wide and five long. The tocchetto is a small square that can be small (a couple of cm on each side) or larger (about double). It is not a question of goat wool.

In the first case, you will have a more full-bodied dish (and longer cooking), suitable for example as an appetizer.

In the second (the solution I prefer) a versatile preparation that you can serve as a side dish but also use to season a hot or cold pasta.

Chunks, especially if small, cause the peppers to lose volume and give less satisfaction when tasted, although they are easier to manage with a fork. In my opinion, huh!

3. With garlic or onion?

Here it is really a matter of taste and you can also put them both. Rather, pay attention to the cut.

If you chop the garlic, the peperonata will take on its strong flavor, while left whole and crushed, or divided in half, it will give a more discreet aroma.

Ditto for the onion, which I personally cut into slices, then divided in half, in order to obtain strips more or less as long as the strips of pepper.

Of course, onion also contributes to a sweet dish. Choose it, according to market, golden, white or red, and do not disdain the shallot.

The leek, on the other hand, I do not recommend it: both because it has a too characteristic taste, which distorts the recipe a little, and (and above all) because it is a winter vegetable, when the peppers are typically summer.

4. Tomato, or even not?

The addition or not of the tomato, and in what form, depends above all on the use you want to make of the peperonata.

Will it be a side dish? Towards the end of cooking you can add some whole or slightly crushed datterino tomatoes.

Do you want to season the pasta? Put San Marzano, peeled and in fillets, or good peeled tomatoes as soon as the peppers begin to soften.

Are you only interested in coloring the preparation slightly? A tip of triple concentrate dissolved in the bottom will dye it without being too intrusive.

That said, you can safely avoid adding it and leave the "nature" peperonata.

peperonata
peperonata

5. With or without peel?

Here we enter the realm of digestion.

Fortunately for me, I also digest the stones and I find that in the peperonata the skin serves to keep the fillets (or the flaps, or the chunks) in shape and consistent, which, on the other hand, when peeled, "mash" a little.

That said, if for any reason you decide to peel the peppers, rather than roast them or scald them in water (yes, I've seen this too), better peel them with a potato peeler. Otherwise, it goes without saying, they will be subjected to a double cooking at the expense of crunchiness. Which I am going to tell you in the next point.

6. Crunchy or soft?

Do you want to learn once and for all not to eat rotten vegetables? I have always fought my battle in the family, because I am the only one who loves the consistency of vegetables, opposed by the party of pulped, overcooked, boggart.

On the contrary, cooking not al dente, but still a little behind, will not only allow you to "feel" more the peppers, the differences in flavor between one color and another and the tastes of the other ingredients, but it will be a winner on the day. after.

That the peperonata is rightfully one of the dishes that the more they are there the more they improve, but the rest inevitably makes them lose their tone: if you start from already very soft pieces, you will end up with a shapeless pap. You see.

7. Bittersweet yes or no?

In my opinion, yes, but without exaggerating. You are not making a pickle preserves. You are enhancing the flavor and fragrance of the peppers, emphasizing the sweetness with a hint of sugar.

I sprinkle about a level teaspoon on the vegetables (let's say, a couple of medium peppers), as soon as they start to wilt, and I blend with a round of vinegar (just in the sense of a round from the semi-corked bottle with the thumb), keeping the flame well lively until I no longer feel the loud.

A small touch that gives roundness to the whole, otherwise a little flat (again in my opinion).

If, of course, you have an aversion to this taste, you can do without it without major feelings of guilt.

peperonata
peperonata

8. With which aromas?

Do you like spicy? For consistency, use chilli rather than pepper: fresh sliced, dry crumbled or powdered, as you prefer and in the quantity that suits you best, combining it from the start.

I do not disdain the use of paprika, especially in the case of a peperonata made only of red peppers.

Herbs chapter: a great classic is basil, an excellent combination with thyme, interesting are those with marjoram or fresh oregano, all herbs to be combined when the heat is off. Even a bay leaf (this one, at the beginning of cooking) is not bad.

Savory ingredients, or the classic olive-caper-anchovy triptych, are always welcome. Anchovies to melt in the bottom, and black olives and well desalted capers to add towards the end. Only, in this case beware of salt.

9. Hot or cold?

Solomonically, lukewarm. Or at room temperature. In short, neither too hot nor too cold, to savor the tastes and, as already mentioned, the textures.

So, if you want to eat it freshly made, remove it from the heat and let it rest for ten, fifteen minutes before serving.

What remains (if you have made it in abundance) lasts in the fridge for a few days, versatile and easily recyclable (see point 10): remove it a quarter of an hour before it reaches the right temperature.

If you do not like cold foods, and you want to heat it quickly (I would say in a pan, sautéing it, rather than in the microwave), all the more reason you will get better results if, as indicated in point 6, you have been a little behind in cooking.

10. What to combine it with?

Given that it goes very well with itself (I generally eat half of it directly from the pot even before serving it on the table) there are dishes which it serves as a side dish with extreme enjoyment.

Salamellas and sausages, also in a sandwich version by copying the pop food trucks out of the stadiums: perhaps, you will not eat the lightest and most digestible of dishes, but with a nice fresh beer it will be pure pleasure.

Similarly, all pork, ribs and chops, but also an honest roast, and meatballs, better browned or fried than with sauce. Among the cold cuts, cooked ham and Praga above all.

Cheeses: fresh (she in the cold version) such as stracchino, primosale, mozzarella and fiordilatte braid; smoked cheese, why not grilled; taleggio, robiole and soft cheeses in general.

Eggs in all sauces: plain, scrambled, poached. By extension, it's delicious in an omelette (in this case, though, I prefer it not sweet and sour).

If you have a small portion left over, stretch it with tomato sauce or pulp and season the pasta or rice, or don't stretch it at all and make a cold pasta.

Try it also on bruschetta and, in general, in sandwiches with the aforementioned cheeses and meats.

Here, it seems to me that's all. Or maybe you still have some doubts (or some solutions) about the peperonata, its preparation, its use?

Recommended: