Halloumi and Roasted Peppers

I suppose I have to face the fact that it's over. Linens and sandals have been relegated to the back of the wardrobe, the tan has faded, suitcases are once again gathering dust in the attic and memories of lazy, sun-filled lunches, sipping rosé, overlooking a startlingly blue Mediterranean have been firmly pushed to the back of my mind. Summer has gone and it doesn't look as though it will be back any time soon. Of course, I love autumn so my mourning won't last long, it's just that it seems to have arrived very quickly, leaving me feeling as though I haven't had a chance to properly say goodbye to summer.

This dish then is my farewell to summertime. It works well as a light lunch or as a starter. The brightly-hued, sweet-tasting peppers seem to retain the warmth of the sun that is sadly lacking at the moment and are a perfect foil for the salty halloumi; the citrussy dressing, fresh with herbs, complements both ingredients perfectly.

Go on, put those flip-flops away but make sure you've got this ready to eat afterwards. It would even go well with a glass of rosé or two...

This post is making its way over to the ever popular challenge, Cooking with Herbs. The challenge is created and hosted by Karen from the wonderful Lavender and Lovage.

I'm also sending it to Javelin Warrior's wonderful weekly challenge which encourages everyone to cook from scratch, Made with Love Mondays.

RECIPE - serves 2 as a light lunch or starter

1 x 250g pack of halloumi
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper

For the herb dressing
150ml extra virgin olive oil
a large handful of  fresh flatleaf parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tbsp capers, drained
juice and zest of half a lemon

The dish works best when the peppers and dressing are at room temperature and the halloumi is hot so you can prepare the peppers and dressing in advance and finish the dish by grilling the halloumi just before eating. 

Start by roasting the peppers. Preheat the oven to its maximum temperature and put the peppers in whole, on a greased baking tray. Leave for about 25 mins, turning occasionally. The skins should be blackened and starting to peel away. Remove from the oven and put them in a plastic bag to cool before peeling them and eliminating the seeds and core. Slice each pepper lengthways into quarters or thirds.

For the dressing, start by roughly chopping the parsley and capers. Add to the olive oil along with the oregano, the lemon zest and the lemon juice. Shake (or whisk) everything together well. 

When you're ready to eat, heat a griddle pan until very hot. Drain the halloumi and cut into about 8 slices, brush each slice with a little olive oil and griddle for about 1-2 mins each side, until the cheese is lightly charred and beginning to soften.

Arrange the peppers and halloumi on the plates (making sure each plate has both red and yellow peppers) and spoon over the dressing.

Serve with lots of crusty bread. 

Roasted Pepper and Ricotta Pasta

A staple of Italian cuisine, peppers are incredibly versatile. When roasted  they become sweet, soft and smoky but I love them raw too, so crunchy and refreshing, although you rarely find them in their uncooked state in Italy as they're considered highly indigestible. As an aside, the Italian word for peppers is peperoni which I thought worth mentioning here in case of any confusion when ordering a pizza in Italy; pizza con peperoni is a pizza with peppers, if you want US style 'Pepperoni Pizza', then you should  ask for pizza con salame piccante. Just thought it might be useful...

In this pasta recipe, the peppers are roasted and peeled before being blended with ricotta to form a thick creamy sauce which is then added to some softened onion, fresh tomatoes and chilli. The tomatoes provide a nice acidity which works well with the smooth, rich sauce and chilli gives a little kick.

This month's One Ingredient Challenge, started by Laura of How to Cook Good Food and Nazima from Franglais Kitchen, is Cheese so I'm sending this over to Nazima who is the host for April. I absolutely love cheese so can't wait to see the round up at the end of the month!



As the theme is Chilli, I'm also sending this to Shaheen for Allotment 2 Kitchen who is April's host of Pasta Please, a wonderful challenge started by Jac from Tinned Tomatoes.




RECIPE
2 red peppers
100g ricotta
half a fresh chilli, finely chopped
half an onion
100g cherry tomatoes
4-5 tablespoons olive oil

300-400g pasta, any shape you want

Start by roasting the peppers. Preheat the oven to its maximum temperature and put the peppers in whole, on a greased baking tray. Leave for about 25 mins, turning occasionally. The skins should be blackened and starting to peel away. Remove from the oven and put them in a plastic bag to cool before peeling them and eliminating the seeds and core.

Place the peppers in a food processor with some salt, the ricotta and 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Blend until smooth, adding more olive oil if necessary and adjust the seasoning.

Cook the pasta in a boiling salted water.

In the meantime, finely chop the onion and cook gently in a frying pan in a  little olive oil until softened. Add the chilli and cook for a further few minutes. Halve the cherry tomatoes and add them to the onion and chilli, tossing them briefly together for a minute or so.

Add the pepper and ricotta sauce, mix everything gently together and leave on the heat for a few minutes to warm through. If it's all looking a bit thick, add some of the pasta water to thin it slightly. When the pasta is al dente, drain and mix everything together well.

Serve with some freshly grated parmesan.

Pasta with peppers

I'm almost embarrassed to call this a recipe as there are basically only two ingredients, pasta and peppers, and the method is laughably simple, requiring no more than a bit of chopping and some stirring. From this, you may think that it's not really worth it - I mean how tasty can it be if there's so little involvement in the making of it? However, that would be a great mistake because this dish is utterly delicious. Cooked slowly, the peppers begin to caramelise in the olive oil, becoming soft and sweet, completely transformed from their raw, indigestible state. The juice they give off combines with the oil to turn into a sauce which then coats the pasta. All in all, I think it's close to pasta perfection. If you like peppers, I urge you to try this.

As this month's theme is peppers, I'm very pleased to be able to join in with the Pasta Please challenge, started by Jac over at the amazing Tinned Tomatoes and hosted this month by Lisa from We don't eat anything with a face. I'm really looking forward to seeing what other people have come up with this month.



RECIPE - serves 3-4

• 350g long pasta - bucatini (thick spaghetti-like pasta with a hole running through it) is ideal here but failing that you can use linguine (as I have for the photo) or even spaghetti
• 6 peppers (if you can get different colours, it makes for a more visually pleasing dish; red, yellow and orange are better for flavour but you can use a small green one too if you must but remember that they don't match up to the others for taste)
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• lots of fresh parmesan to serve

Wash the peppers and deseed. Roughly slice them up. In a large frying pan (with a lid), pour in enough olive oil to just coat the bottom. Put over a medium heat and add the peppers, turning them in the oil. Cover and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

After 15 minutes, remove the lid and continue cooking uncovered for a further 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The peppers are ready when they are soft and just beginning to brown at the edges. At this stage, season to taste.

Cook the pasta according to instructions, making sure you've salted the water well - it really does make all the difference. Near the end of the cooking, take a ladleful of the pasta cooking water and add to the peppers. When the pasta is al dente, drain well and mix with the peppers. Drizzle over a little more olive oil if you think it needs it and serve with lots of freshly grated parmesan.

Chilli Jam

I have always loved the idea of having a larder stocked with home-made jams, preserves and chutneys but in reality, the demands of a full-time job don't leave me much time for this type of cooking. However, since moving into our new house a few years ago, I have managed to make at least a few jars of chutney each year, spurred on by a reluctance to waste the windfalls from my apple and pear trees if I didn't. The whole operation of chutney-making was so much simpler than I had imagined (apart from my almost OCD obsessiveness about sterilising the jars) that I was encouraged to try my hand at some other preserves.

Although marmellata di peperoncino originally comes from Calabria, famous for its powerful chillies, I first tried this chilli jam in a trattoria in Tuscany. It was one of those rustic places, without pretension, all wooden tables and brown paper mats, serving plain but delicious local food. We had platters of Tuscan meats and cheeses - cinta senese (a rare breed of pig from the Siena area) salami, wafer thin slices of finocchiona, a wonderfully scented salami flavoured with fennel seeds, silky slices of lardo di Colonnata produced from pigs that dine on acorns and chestnuts served on chunks of warm toasted bread, ash-covered wedges of pecorino from Pienza ... The chilli jam accompanied the cheeses and it was perfect, not only, as I had expected, with the more mature ones but also combining wonderfully with the young, fresh pecorino.

My version comes from Nigella's Christmas book. I have tried others but this is my favourite - it's so simple yet yielding fabulous results. I love the clear, vibrant red jelly, with its fragments of chilli floating inside. Don't save it just for the cheese board though - it goes wonderfully with bacon sandwiches, burgers cooked on the barbecue, grilled chicken, cold meats...

You can find Nigella's recipe here (http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chilli-jam-2692).

I'm sending this over to the amazingly alliterative monthly blogging challenge Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen (of the inspirational Lavender and Lovage) and Kate (from mouth-watering What Kate Baked)  - the theme is Jam, Chutneys, Curds and Conserves. Kate is this month's host and having seen both her entry and Karen's, I'm sure it's going to be a fantastic round-up!