Peppers and Potatoes Hot Salad

Here the preparation of a hot Italian salad with potatoes and peppers, yellow and red, to give a sunny color to your second course or appetizer. The preparation of this Italian side dish is easy and fast. You should use potatoes that are suitable to be roasted, generally the yellow potatoes are the good one, and red and yellow peppers. I love to present this side dish with a second course of meat like a good steak or also with cheese like a fresh mozzarella or a more tasty cheese like the Roman pecorino cheese.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):

2 Red peppers

1 Yellow pepper

3 Potatoes

3-4 Tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil

Salt

Black pepper

Rosemary

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Cabernet (Red wine)

PREPARATION

Clean and peel the potatoes, wash the red and yellow peppers and cut all of them in pieces.

Preheat the extravirgin olive oil in a large pan. Add the potatoes and the peppers and let them saute’ for few minutes.

Sprinkle with salt, black pepper and a little bit of rosemary.

Continue to cook on a low flame for about 20-25 minutes stirring time by time and paying attention to not let them attach to the pan. If necessary, add half a glass of water.

The potatoes and the yellow and red peppers they will be ready when they become golden. BUON APPETITO!

Pie with Pepper, Zucchini, Aubergine and Carrots

Here another easy Italian recipe for pie that you can serve as an appetizer. This pie is mainly made with vegetables, in particular pepper, zucchini, aubergine and carrots, with the addition of Speck and Asiago cheese. The vegetables that I used for this Italian food are the vegetables that more often I have in my fridge so was very easy to decide how to use them. If you are vegetarian you can easy prepare this Italian recipe also for you not using the speck. If you don’t’ like the speck, you can change it with another Italian cold meat like, raw ham or cooked ham. The preparation is easy: you have just to clean, and cut the vegetables in long stripes, let them quickly cook in a large pan with some extra virgin olive oil and then put them on the surface of a flaky pastry with speck (if you like it) on the bottom and Asiago cheese on the top. This pie can be also a solution for children who don’t like vegetables so much.


INGREDIENTS (for 8-10 people):
Flaky pastry
1 Pepper
2 Zucchini
2 Carrots
1 Aubergine
Salt and Black pepper
3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
200 g or 7,1 oz of Asiago cheese
5-6 thin slices of Speck

PREPARATION TIME: 30 minutes

COOKING TIME: 20 minutes

WINE: Pinot Grigio (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Start with the preparation of the filling of the pie: clean the pepper, zucchini, carrots and aubergine. Cut them in long stripes. Preheat in a large pan the extra virgin olive oil, when it is hot add the vegetables, sprinkle with salt and black pepper and let them cook for about 10 -15 minutes.





The vegetables shouldn’t be completely cooked because you will finish to cook them in the oven. Preheat the oven at 200 degree (or 390 fahrenheit). In the meantime place a sheet of baking paper in the bottom of a round baking pan and put on it the flaky pastry. Make some hole with a fork on the surface of the flaky pastry



and bake for 3 – 5 minutes. Cut in squared pieces the Asiago cheese. After 3 – 5 minutes remover the flaky pastry from the oven and place on its bottom the slice of speck.



Add the vegetables



and the Asiago cheese on the surface.



Bake for 20 minutes. Serve warm or cold according to your taste.



BUONA APPETITO!

Peppers Stuffed with Meat

This Italian main course is easier to prepare than what you think. You just need to prepare the mixture of meat and wash the peppers and then they have only to cook. The mixture of meat that I usually like is not composed only of minced meat of pork but I usually add also a bit of sausage pork because it gives a more savory taste to the peppers. Then only a few more Italian food like egg, Parmesan, salt and black peppers and that’s all. The kind of peppers to use should be pulpy, large and easy to fill. The peppers that I prefer more are the yellow and the red ones.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
4 Peppers (yellow, red or green as you prefer)
400g or 14,11 oz of Minced meat of pork
150g or 5,29 oz of meat of sausage of pork
50g or 1,76 oz of Parmesan
1 Bread roll
Milk (what you need to soak the bread)
1 Egg
Salt (not too much because the meat of sausage is already salted)
Black Pepper

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 1 hour

WINE: Brunello di Montalcino (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Start with the preparation of the filling: crumble the bread roll in pieces, soak it in milk.



Remove the excess of milk squeezing the bread and put in a large bowl.



Remove the peel of the sausage. Add to the bread the minced pork meat, the sausage, the egg and the Parmesan. Sprinkler with black pepper and salt (not too much because the sausage is usually a little bit salted).



Mix everything together and adjust with salt according to your taste.





Preparer the peppers: you can use yellow, red, green peppers, the ones you prefer more. Wash them, cut the top of the peppers and clean the inside part of them. Remove the seeds and the white part of the peppers paying attention not to break them.




Sprinkle the peppers with a bit of salt. When the peppers are ready fill them with the mixture of meat.



Place the extra virgin olive oil with some water in a baking pan, put them in the baking pan in a vertical position, sprinle them with a little bit of breadcrumbs in order to have a crunchy surface and bake for almost one hour at 180 degree.



Cover with a sheet of baking paper the bottom of another baking pan and place on it the top of the peppers.



Check the cooking of the peppers, most probably the tops will cook more rapidly than the stuffed peppers. When the peppers are cooked place them on a dish,



serve them warm with the top on them.



BUON APPETITO!

Roulades of Peppers

Roulades of peppers is a very simple recipe to prepare; you have just to follow some easy steps. Peppers can be use to prepare a lot of Italian recipes, like pepper stuffed, with meat, peppers stuffed with rice, salad with raw peppers or in the authentic Italian peperonata that it is made with slices of pepper, onion and tomatoes. Here I prepared the roulades of peppers with a filling made with pine nuts, capers, anchovies, parsley and breadcrumbs. What I like most in this filling is the contrast between the salted anchovies and the sweet raisins. Taste them and let me know if you like it.


INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
3-4 Pepper (read, yellow, or green as you prefer)
50 g or 1/4 cup of Pine nut
50 g or 1/4 cup of Raisins
50 g or 1/3 cup of Capers
50g or 1/4 cup of Anchovy
30 g or 1/4 cup of Parsley
1 Egg
100 g or 1/2 cup of Breadcrumb
Salt
Black pepper


PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Ribolla Gialla (White wine)

PREPARATION
Start with the preparation of peppers: first thing to do is to cook the peppers in the oven. Place a sheet of baking paper on the bottom of a baking pan, put on it the peppers and cook at 180 degree for about 20 minutes until it will be very easy to remove the very thin peel of the peppers. Turn the peppers time by time in order to roast each side of the peppers. This step is very important in order to remove the peel; another option is to cook the peppers on a grill. You can do, as you prefer. When the peppers are ready let them cool down and then remove their peel. Cut the peppers in slice of 4-5 cm of width.



Now you can prepare the filling. Cut in little pieces the anchovies; place them in a bowl together with the pine nuts, the raisins and the capers.



Mix them and then add, the breadcrumb, the egg and the parsley. Mix everything and add some salt if you think that is necessary, but not too much because the anchovies are already salted.



Now you can fill the slices of peppers and roll them in order to make the roulades.



Close the roulades with toothpick or with cooking thread. Place the roulade of pepper in a baking pan and baked for a bout 15-20 minutes at 180 degree until the surface of the roulades becomes golden. Serve them warm as a main dish or a side dish.



BUON APPETITO!

Stuffed Pepper

This is an alternative way to cook peppers and a very spicy recipe! An easy recipe for a main course made of peppers and bread!

INGREDIENTS (for 2 people)
2 Peppers (yellow or red)
1/2 Pepper for the stuffing
100 g of Bread
10 g of Parsley
210 ml of Milk
25 g of Parmesan (Italian cheese)
1 Clove of garlic
1 Egg
Salt
Black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Some breadcrumbs

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Pinot Grigio (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Wash, dry and cut each pepper into quarters, then sprinkle with some salt.

Chop the other half of pepper together with 1 clove of garlic and some parsley and put all in a bowl.

Dip the bread in some milk and break it into small pieces, then add it to the pepper mixture. Then add the Parmesan, the egg and some salt and black pepper and mix it all together.

If the stuffing has a runny consistency, add some breadcrumbs.

Preheat the oven to 200 ° C. Use a teaspoon to fill the pepper quarters with the mixture. Dampen a sheet of baking paper and put it on the bottom of a baking pan. Arrange the peppers on it. Dress with a drizzle of oil. Cook in the oven for about 30 minutes until the surface of the stuffing turns golden.

This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!