Roasted Red Peppers

Judging by the price at the supermarket, red peppers seem to be “in season” right now.  Quotation marks because I’m not sure whether hothouses are subject to seasons.  Anyway, it seems like a good time to buy a big bag for roasting.  Roasting peppers is easy to do and the product is versatile especially when it’s pureed.

I like this roasted red pepper sauce recipe as a starting point.  I reduce the amount of fennel seeds by a lot but include a couple of tomatoes in the roasting pan to thin the puree and add another facet to the flavour.  It’s convenient to have this sauce on hand for a quick meal so I like to make a lot and freeze it.

I tripled the recipe when I made it this weekend.  I roasted 10 or 12 peppers or about 3 lbs.  Cooked they were about 4 cups and pureed they were only about 2 cups.  I had some with my dinner and I’ll freeze the rest.  I’d say it’s enough for two more meals.  The yield doesn’t seem like much by volume but it’s very rich and flavourful stuff so it can be diluted or stretched a bit with other yummy foods.

I’m going to try to make some plain red pepper puree this week.  I’m just going to roast the peppers with a little salt, pepper, and olive oil which I’ll puree and freeze.  I’m imagining that it will make a good flavour or even a base for soup (red pepper puree and fresh cream), a base or addition to dips and spreads (a scoop in a batch of hummous?), on foccacia, a base for pizza sauce, and, and, and…

Rusty