THIS IS NOT JULIA CHILD’S PIPÉRADE

 

Piperrada: sauce? relish? vegetable side dish?

I only once saw Julia Child’s cooking show, The French Chef. I was already living in Spain in the years it became popular. Home on a visit, I tuned in to find out what everybody was talking about. 

Julia was making a recipe for Basque pipérade, an omelet with onions and peppers. Her rendition consisted of a panful of soft scrambled eggs topped with the pepper mixture, a sort of open-faced tortilla. 

Julia’s recipe was “Basquaise,” French Basque, not “a la vasca,” Spanish Basque. (Not that the Euskaldunak, Basque people, would consider themselves either French or Spanish.) The name derives from the Gascon word for pepper, pipèr. In Euskera, the Basque language, the word for pepper is “piperra.” In castellano Spanish, it is “pimiento.” 

I’ve since found piperrada in Spanish Basque cooking as well as in La Rioja and Navarra, regions known for their peppers, green, red, sweet, hot, dried. Is it a sauce? A relish? A vegetable side dish? Piperrada is considered a guarnación, a side garnish or sauce, to be served with fish, especially salt cod; meat; chicken, and, yes, eggs.

Piperrada, mixed pepper sauté, is the vegetable side with entrecote steak. Try it also heaped on a burger in a bun, rolled into a burrito or alongside a store-bought rotisserie chicken.

Piperrada scrambled with egg, garnished with serrano ham and fried bread.

The piperrada-scrambled egg heaped on toasts makes an easy tapa.

Easy brunch, lunch or supper dish--eggs baked on a bed of piperrada.

Yes, you can peel the peppers.

  About the peppers— The red bell peppers I buy are huge—a single pepper can weigh 12 ounces. I used only two. You’ll need enough to measure about three cups of thinly sliced red peppers; two cups of green. For the green peppers, I used, not bell peppers, but the long, skinny Italian frying peppers. Use a little chile or hot pimentón, to taste.

  If fresh peppers are not available, roasted jarred ones can be used. Fresh bell peppers are best if they are first roasted and peeled. But, home cooks might slice them raw, skins and all. The slow sauté softens the skins, anyway. I’ve used a different method—I’ve used a vegetable peeler to peel the peppers, ignoring the strips that don’t peel easily. 

Sautéed Peppers

Piperrada

Makes approx. 2 ½ cups cooked peppers.

1 large onion

3 cloves garlic

¼ cup olive oil

1 ½ pounds red bell peppers 

¾ pound green bell peppers

½ teaspoon pimentón picante (spicy-hot paprika)

1 cup peeled and chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Chopped parsley, to serve

Thinly slice the onion in julienne slices. Chop the garlic. Heat half of the oil in a heavy skillet. Sauté the onions and garlic on moderate heat until they are softened, 8 minutes. Don’t let them brown.

 Meanwhile, use a vegetable peeler to peel the bell peppers. Remove stem and seeds and slice the peppers crosswise into thin strips. Add the peppers to the onions with the remaining oil and continue to sauté until peppers lose their crispness, 5 minutes.

Stir the pimentón into the onions and peppers. Add the tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook the mixture 15 minutes. Uncover and cook until peppers are very tender and most of the liquid has cooked away.

Serve the peppers, hot or cold, garnished with chopped parsley.

Eggs Scrambled with Peppers

Revuelto de Piperrada

For a vegetarian meal, omit the ham garnish.

Make a whole pan of piperrada and eggs, using 4-5 eggs and all of the piperrada from the above recipe. Or, make a single serving that can be divided up for tapa portions using ½ cup of piperrada for 1 egg. 

If you like soft-set scrambled eggs, cook them gently until they are the desired consistency. Alternatively, scramble the eggs and peppers, then spread them out to cook as for a tortilla (omelet). Let them set firmly.  

For 1 serving: 

Thinly sliced serrano ham (optional)

½ tablespoon olive oil

½ cup piperrada

1 egg

Freshly ground black pepper

Salt flakes

Chopped parsley, to serve

Triangles of fried bread, to serve

If using the ham, cut it into strips. Heat the oil in a skillet and fry the strips of ham until they curl and crisp slightly. Skim them out and reserve.

To scramble, break eggs right into the pan.

   Add the piperrada to the skillet and heat it thoroughly. On moderately-high heat, break the egg into the piperrada. Use a fork or wooden spatula to mix the egg, yolk and white, into the piperrada. Cook to desired degree of doneness. 

  Spoon the piperrada onto plates. Sprinkle with pepper, salt and parsley. Garnish with pieces of ham, if using. Serve with fried bread. 

To serve the scrambled eggs and piperrada as a tapa, heap the mixture on toasts or pieces of fried bread. Top with ham, if desired, and garnish with parsley. Serve room temperature. (One egg and ½ cup piperrada makes 3 tapas, as pictured above.) 

Eggs Baked with Piperrada

Huevos con Piperrada al Horno

For 1 serving:

Olive oil for the ramekin

½ cup piperada

1 egg

Salt flakes

Freshly ground black pepper

Strips of serrano ham (optional)

Chopped parsley

Toasts, to serve

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Lightly oil an oven-safe ramekin or cazuelita. Spread piperada in the ramekin. Make an indentation in the center and break the egg into it. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put strips of ham around the egg.

Bake until the white is set but yolk still runny, about 12 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with parsley. Serve with toasts.

More recipes with peppers:

Braised Veal with Red Peppers.

Cod with Red Peppers, Biscay Style.

Chicken with Sweet Red Peppers (Chilindrón).