Roasted Stuffed Red Peppers

Serve these as vegetables or starters or for lunch.

Ingredients

• Red, orange or yellow peppers
• Basil leaves or slivers of garlic
• Pesto
• Halved anchovy fillets
• Capers
• Medium sized ripe tomatoes
• Black olives
• Olive oil

Method

Halve the peppers lengthwise. Stand them on crumpled foil in a roasting pan. (The foil helps the stay upright.)

In each pepper put two or three basil leaves, or a teaspoonful of basil pesto,  several halved anchovy fillets, and three or four capers, and three or four thin slivers of garlic.

Quarter some medium-sized ripe, red tomatoes and remove the stem ends and the seeds. Arrange the quartered tomatoes, rounded sides uppermost, in the peppers, packing the pieces so they fill the peppers. 

Push about two black olives into each pepper, leaving them so they show partly, and drizzle some olive oil over the filled peppers.

Roast them, uncovered, at 200°C for about 30 minutes, until they are tender.  Pinch off and remove all tomato skins you can reach.

Serve the stuffed peppers, warm, cold or re-warmed, garnished with basil sprigs, and with crusty bread.

John Hawkesby’s Wine Suggestion

Sauvignon Blanc

• Marsden Estate 2006
• Churton 2007 

Pinot Gris

• Camshorn 2007 

OR

Pinot Grigio

• Santa Margherita 2006

Verdhello

• Sandalford Estate Reserve 2007

Pinot Noir

• Woollaston 2006
• Black Estate 2004