How to Roast a Red Pepper
Roasted red peppers are great as an ingredient in dishes and sauces, but also on their own. As part of anti-pasta plate, on a sandwich, or just a bit of cheese and cracker, they are very versatile. The best thing is that you can do it at home in about ten minutes, and without any special equipment. In this cooking video, I show you had to roast a red pepper directly on a gas burner, and then remove the burnt skins to get at the roasted, sweet flesh.
If you have an electric burner, this technique is a bit harder, but it still works. You just have to watch things a bit more closely and rotate the pepper more frequently. Alternatively, you can also do this in the oven with the broiler on – but that just doesn’t have the same panache…and won’t impress your date like the stove top does.
How To roast a red pepper
- Clean the bell pepper and dry the skin
- Turn your gas burner on high heat, and lay the pepper directly on the flame. That’s right, directly on the grate, just where you’d put a frying pan on.
- The skin will start to burn, but it will probably take about 30 seconds to do so. As the skin blackens, rotate the pepper around so that you blacken all sides. You’re looking for a full burn, all the skin should be black, and the pepper will start to soften up.
- This process will probably take between 5 – 10 minutes
- Once black all the way around, take the pepper off the heat and put it into a paper bag. Fold the top of the bag over to seal it as tightly as you can (you can use plastic, but let the pepper cool for a minute so you don’t melt the plastic). The heat from the pepper will create steam. That steam causes the burnt skin to loosen up from the flesh of the pepper.
- Once cooled (about 10 minutes) remove the pepper, and with your hands (and maybe a paper towel) rub the skin off the pepper. It should come off pretty easily, and you’re left with the soft red flesh. A few bits of black here and there are fine, but you want most of it gone.
- Don’t wash the pepper under water, that will wash away a lot of the flavor.
Your pepper is now roasted, and you can cut it up however you want. I like them as part of an anti-pasta plate, but they are a great addition to salads, sandwiches and as a substitute in dishes calling for bell pepper (try roasted red pepper mayo).
Enjoy!!
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