Recipes › Sweet Pepper › Peperonata
Peperonata
This is the Italian sweet pepper braise that belongs in every gardener's September repertoire. Sliced peppers are cooked low and slow with tomatoes, garlic and a splash of red wine vinegar until they collapse into a jammy, intensely savoury tangle that improves every day it sits in the fridge. Eat it alongside grilled meat, stir it through pasta, pile it onto bruschetta — it is endlessly useful.
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Ingredients
- 6 sweet peppers, deseeded, sliced into 1cm stripsuse a mix of red, orange and yellow for the best colour and flavour
- 2 white onions, halved and thinly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 400 g tinned plum tomatoes, roughly broken up in the tinor use 4 large ripe fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp capers, drained
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 6 fresh thyme, sprigs
- 20 g fresh basil, leaves torn
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 pinch black pepper, freshly ground
Contains: sulphites.
Method
- Heat the olive oil in a large, wide, heavy-based pan or casserole over a medium heat. Add the sliced onions and a generous pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 12 minutes until the onions are completely soft, translucent and just starting to turn golden.About 12 min
- Add the sliced garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the sliced sweet peppers and the thyme sprigs. Stir well, increase the heat slightly to medium-high, and cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the peppers have softened and are beginning to colour.About 10 min
- Pour in the broken-up tinned tomatoes, red wine vinegar and caster sugar. Stir everything together, scraping up any caramelised bits from the base of the pan. Season with salt and pepper.About 2 min
- Reduce the heat to low. Cook uncovered for 25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until the mixture is thick, jammy and most of the liquid has evaporated. The peppers should be very tender and the tomato should have reduced to a concentrated, glossy sauce.About 25 min
- Remove and discard the thyme sprigs. Stir in the capers. Taste and adjust the seasoning — you may want a little more vinegar if the peppers are very sweet, or a pinch more sugar if the tomatoes were sharp.About 2 min
- Remove from the heat and stir through most of the torn basil, reserving a few leaves for serving. Transfer to a serving dish and scatter over the remaining basil. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Tips
- Do not rush the cooking. Peperonata is not a quick stir-fry — the low, slow braise is what transforms sharp raw peppers into something genuinely special. If it looks watery at 20 minutes, keep going.
- This tastes noticeably better the next day once the flavours have had time to meld. Make it a day ahead if you can and bring it back to room temperature before serving.
- A mix of red, orange and yellow peppers gives you the best depth of flavour. All-red works well. Avoid green peppers — they are too bitter and will not sweeten in the same way.
Ring the changes
- Add 100g of pitted black olives with the capers for a more Sicilian flavour profile.
- Stir through 200g of cooked borlotti beans in the final 5 minutes of cooking to turn this into a light vegetarian main.
Keeping it
Keeps exceptionally well. Store in a sealed jar or container in the fridge for up to 6 days. Also freezes well for up to 2 months. The flavour intensifies as it sits.
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