Oven-Roasted Peppers with Crumbled Feta, Roasted Garlic & Pine Nuts
Bell peppers often play second fiddle — in ratatouille, in stir-fries, never in the spotlight. And that's a shame!
- Prep time: 0 minutes
- Cook time: 0 minutes
This tart finally gives them center stage, alongside onions that took their sweet time caramelizing. A revisited classic, simple to prepare, and nothing fake about it.
Ingredients
-
bell peppers
-
cream cheese
-
clove of garlic
-
olive oil
-
honey
-
basil
-
pignon de pin
-
paprika powder
-
salt and pepper
-
bread
-
apple cider vinegar
Recipe steps
Grill the peppers and garlic under the broiler
Preheat the oven to 220°C on broil mode. Place the whole peppers (ideally 2 red, 1 yellow, 1 orange) on a baking sheet along with the unpeeled garlic cloves (still in their skins). Broil, turning the peppers every 10 minutes — they should blacken and blister on all sides. This is intentional, it’s actually the goal: the charred skin will peel off easily, revealing sweet, melt-in-your-mouth flesh underneath.
Let rest for easy peeling
Remove the peppers from the oven and immediately place them in a bowl covered with plastic wrap or in a sealed airtight bag. Let them rest — the trapped steam will loosen the skin all by itself, like magic. Meanwhile, squeeze the roasted garlic cloves to extract the soft, caramelized pulp. Set aside.
Peel and prepare the peppers
Peel the cooled peppers by hand — the skin comes off in large strips without any effort. Whatever you do, don’t rinse them with water: you’d wash away all the concentrated cooking juices on the flesh. Open them up, remove the seeds and stems. Cut into wide strips. Carefully collect the juice released in the bowl.
Marinate the roasted peppers
In a bowl, mix the olive oil, sherry vinegar or white balsamic vinegar, honey, smoked paprika, the roasted garlic pulp, and the juice collected from the peppers. Season with salt & pepper. Pour this marinade over the pepper strips. Toss gently and let rest for at least 20 minutes — the peppers are patient, and the marinade rewards them for it.
Plate and serve
Toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet for 2 minutes until lightly golden. Arrange the marinated pepper strips on 4 slices of toasted country bread (for serving) or in a serving dish. Crumble the fresh cheese like feta or fresh goat cheese over the top. Sprinkle with the toasted pine nuts and hand-torn fresh basil leaves. A final drizzle of olive oil and serve.
Tips and variations
- For a more generous main course version, arrange the roasted peppers on a bed of creamy polenta or fine semolina instead of bread — the result is visually stunning and very filling.
- No feta? A few spoonfuls of lightly salted ricotta work just as well. And if you like contrasts, a dollop of thick crème fraîche when serving works wonderfully.
Anti-waste tips
Slightly wrinkled peppers or ones with slightly damaged skin are perfect for this recipe — the oven heat and peeling take care of any appearance issues for good. These are exactly the kind of products Uglyfruits delivers to you, and they deserved a recipe worthy of them.
Roasted peppers keep for 5 days in the refrigerator in an airtight jar covered with olive oil. They’re even better the next day, once the flavors have really settled in.
The pulp from the roasted garlic cloves recovered after cooking is a treasure: spread on bread, mixed into a vinaigrette or a mash, it adds flavor and body without ever being harsh.
