We Live By Faith, Not By Sight

Torino, or Turin is the capital of the piedmont region in Northern Italy. It was also my second last stop of Italy tour.  Many visitors to Turin head to the Duomo Di San Giovanni where the holy shroud of Turin was kept. I didn't get to view the shroud as it was no longer on public display. It didn't really matter because as Christians we should be living a life of faith, and not of sight. Turin is also home of Juventus FC and Torino FC and headquarter of Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo cars.

This Piedmont Roasted Peppers was first discovered by an iconic British cookbook writer Elizabeth David.(unknown to me) She wrote this recipe on her cookbook, Italian Food. This recipe was then picked up by a  chef who cooked this at his restaurant. A restaurant owner who ate this, added this dish in his restaurant where Delia Smith had it, and it became Delia's recipe. This recipe had certainly come a long way and I was curious about who Elizabeth David was. It was a startling discovery of this late glamorous British icon. She was the Julia Child of Britain! You can read about her here.

I am sure you all know what roasted red peppers taste like, smoky sweetness? Yes, and with added anchovies,tomatoes, garlic and olive oil, you'll be wondering how a simple,easy and cheap dish can taste so delish! Get yourself a good crusty bread to mop all the juicy sweetness in it. You can have this as an appetizer or as side to your main course. I baked a loaf of rosemary and cherry tomatoes focaccia just for this.

Piedmont Roasted Peppers
Delia Smith Summer's Collection


Ingredients

4 large red peppers (green are not suitable) (2 medium)
6 medium tomatoes (2 medium)
8 tinned anchovy fillets, drained (4 fillets)
2 cloves garlic
8 dessertspoon extra virgin olive oil( 3 tablespoon)
freshly milled black pepper

To serve
small bunch fresh basil leaves


Method

• Begin by cutting the peppers in half and removing the seeds but leaving the stalks intact (they're not edible but they do look attractive and they help the pepper halves to keep their shape).
• Lay the pepper halves in the lightly oiled roasting tray.
• Now put the tomatoes in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Leave them for 1 minute, then drain them and slip the skins off, using a cloth to protect your hands. Then cut the tomatoes into quarters and place three quarters in each pepper half (I cut and dunked tomatoes into hot water, then remove skin).

• After that, snip one anchovy fillet per pepper half into rough pieces and add to the tomatoes. Peel the garlic cloves, sliced them thinly and divide the slices equally among the tomatoes and anchovies.(whole garlic, forgot to slice) 
• Now spoon 1 dessertspoon of olive oil into each pepper, season with freshly milled pepper (but no salt because of the anchovies) and place the tray on a high shelf in the oven 180C for the peppers to roast for 50 minutes to 1 hour. (35 minutes).
• Then transfer the cooked peppers to a serving dish, with all the precious juices poured over, and garnish with a sprig of basil leaves. These do need good to go with them as the juices are sublime - focaccia would be perfect.

For dinner, I served the peppers as side to Delia's Devilled Chicken Drumsticks.
For the Devilled Chicken recipe, please refer here. 



We live by faith, not by sight - 2 Corinthians 5:7




This post is linked to Cook like a Star, a blog hop event hosted by Zoe from bake for happy kids
Baby Sumo from Eat Your Heart Out and Mich from Piece of Cake