Roasted Peppers Sottolio

I went a few days ago to the local Aldi. I found out they had peppers on special offer. Needless to say, I bought 20 peppers.

Once home, I needed a project, an idea... I searched around, even tried to ask my dog... They I was hit by a flashback: the smell of freshly roasted peppers in the summer, after a long day working to bottle the tomatoes with my parents...

I was delighted! I turned to my mum for advice, as I usually do when it comes to cooking. She told me I could roast peppers on the barbeque... "Well, Ma'," I said "It's raining over here!"

"Then roast them in the pan!"

She's brilliant, I always say that. So I did. While cooking our regular dinner, I put on a non stick pan, turned the hob to the maximum and put in 7 peppers. Just washed them and dried them with a towel. Not cut, not seeded, just as they are when you buy them.  

I was turning them every now and then, while cooking our pasta for the evening. I turn them 5 times tops. Their skin must turn black, the skin has to basically burn, only then I turn them, and offer another of the pepper's side to the heat.

I kept turning peppers and adding more, as soon as one of them was ready to go in the bowl. So I roasted 20 peppers, put them in a bowl and covered them with a glass lid.

The next day, again after the day's work and while cooking dinner, I opened the peppers, removed all the seeds and the skin and sliced them longwise, in stripes.

I put the sliced peppers again in the bowls, added some salt and olive oil, just to dress, and some garlic cloves. All of these is to the taste, so I am not giving any measurements.

I left the peppers in the fridge for another night and another day, always covered with the glass lid.

The next day, they were ready to be transferred in the jar. I covered them with olive oil and put the jar in the fridge. It looks like the Jamaican flag. Every time I open my fridge I see this colorful jar, full of love, and smile.

20 peppers became a jar of 1.5 litres full of goodness!

These peppers will now last for a while. Every time we have meat in in our plates, I'll put the jar on the table, and I have a side dish ready! I love canning and preserving for this reason... because I work all day outside the house, when I come home I wanna spend time with my son and my husband, I don't wanna be cooking for hours on end, but neither I want to feed my family stuff that comes from a box...

So the perfect solution for me is to do these kind of "operations": cooking once, involve my son in the whole process and then enjoy the fruit of our work for the next few months.