ENOUGH GREEN PEPPERS

 

One-day's picking: frying peppers.

Green peppers to spare! Enough for gazpacho (only needs a small piece), for pipirrana chopped salad (maybe a couple of peppers), for stuffing (two or three per person). I’m picking a small basket of them every day or two, so it’s time to try some other favorite recipes.

We only planted one variety of pepper—Italian frying peppers. No bell peppers, no chiles. In Spain this pepper is an all-purpose variety, used for everything.

It’s a long, slim pepper, sometimes kinky; thin skinned, with crisp flesh, a bittersweet taste. Raw, frying peppers are chopped into salads such as pipirrana. They are the best pepper for sofrito, the sautéed mix of onion, garlic, peppers, and tomatoes that is the starting point for so many dishes in Spanish cooking, from paella to stew. Oh, yes, they are also used for frying.

The peppers are not fried crisp, but cooked in oil until they are completely tender, only lightly browned. Serve them hot or room temperature as a tapa, with bread to accompany. Use them as a side with grilled meat or fish. Heap them on a burger or make a serranito, a classic sandwich of pork loin, serrano ham, fried peppers, and alioli (garlic mayo). 

Fried peppers, tapa bar-style.

Classic serranito sandwich--fried peppers, pork loin, cured ham, and alioli.

Fried Green Peppers

Pimientos Fritos

Fry peppers in one layer.

You only need about ½ inch of oil in a large skillet. Heat the oil very hot, then reduce the heat. Place the peppers in a single layer in the skillet. If hot oil tends to splatter as peppers release their water, partially cover the pan. Fry the peppers until they are limp and the skins wrinkled and very lightly browned, 20 to 30 minutes. Repeat with additional batches. The peppers can be served hot, room temperature or cold. They can be packed in sealed bags and frozen.

To eat the peppers, tapa bar-style, hold a pepper by the stem and lower it into your mouth. Bite off the pepper; discard the stem and seeds. 

12 peppers

Olive oil for frying

Flaky salt

Wash and dry the peppers. Leave them whole, but cut a slit in their tips. Heat oil to a depth of ½ inch in a large skillet. Place peppers in the oil in a single layer and lower the heat to medium. If hot oil splatters, partially cover the pan. Fry the peppers slowly until wrinkly and beginning to brown, then turn them and fry the reverse side. Fry the peppers until completely limp, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towels. Continue frying remaining peppers. Sprinkle them while hot with salt.

Serranito Sandwich

Bocata de Serranito

Fried green peppers add a special touch to this sandwich with pork loin and ham. Sliced tomato is optional. 

Use a crusty sandwich roll (bollo) or a section of baguette for the serranito. Split it open and toast the halves in a toaster or on a plancha. Spread with alioli (garlic mayonnaise), plain mayo or olive oil with crushed garlic. 

Remove stem and seeds from the fried peppers before adding to the sandwich. If desired, the peppers can be skinned as well. 

Makes 1 sandwich

1-2 thin slices boneless pork loin

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

Crusty sandwich roll (bollo), toasted

Alioli or mayonnaise

2-3 fried green peppers

Thinly sliced serrano or ibérico ham

Slices tomato (optional)

Alioli or mayo from a squeeze bottle on toasted roll.

Sprinkle the sliced pork loin with salt and pepper. Cook them quickly on a lightly oiled plancha or skillet until lightly browned. Remove.

Split the sandwich roll in half. Spread with alioli or mayonnaise. Put the pork loin slices on the bottom half. Remove stems and seeds from the peppers and heap them on top of the pork. Add sliced ham and tomato, if using. Cover with the other half of the roll. Place the sandwich on a cutting board and slice it in half.

More peppers to come!

More ways to use green peppers:

Chopped Tomato, Pepper and Tuna Salad (Pipirrana de Jaén)

Piperade (Piparrada). (Make the piperade with all green frying peppers)

Mussels with Chopped Pepper Vinaigrette.

Peppers Stuffed With Tuna.

Fried Padrón Peppers.