roasted red pepper dressing

we've been getting tons of bell peppers in our farm box lately, and i love peppers - but i rarely buy more than one red or yellow bell pepper because they're so pricey.  did you know that red bell peppers are the same as green bell peppers, they're just ripe?  

anyway, i didn't really know how to handle this influx of colorful peppers in my life - and while we've been chopping them up and adding to dishes i still had a handful left over. so i pulled out a recipe from the complete vegetarian cookbook for sweet pepper dressing.  it's delicious and good on all sorts of things.

i love roasting red peppers, so i went ahead and did that rather than boiling like the recipe calls for.  my preferred method for roasting is to throw the peppers on a sheet pan under the broiler - i even do it in the toaster oven if the peppers are small enough to fit in there without touching the broiler - that way you can monitor their progress easily through the window.  just rotate the peppers every few minutes as the skin starts to blacken so that they're nice and charred all over.  then i pop them in a paper bag - which helps the skins loosen from the flesh - and let them cool in there.  peel the skins off and take out the stems and seeds.  this one ended up looking like somebody's heart, i thought.  and then you throw the pepper in the food processor with some oil and vinegar and salt and pepper - i also added a bit of lemon juice to mine - and that's it.

here's the recipe:

 

SWEET PEPPER DRESSING

Makes about 1 cup

1 large red pepper
4-6 tbs olive oil
2 tsp wine vinegar

a little lemon juice (optional)

salt and freshly ground pepper

1.    [if you don't want to roast your peppers like i did you can use this method:] Put the whole pepper into a saucepan and half cover with water.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15-20 mins, until the pepper is very tender.  Test by piercing it with a fork.
2.    Drain the pepper and remove the stalk and seeds.  Purée the pepper in a blender or food processor, then add the oil and blend again.  You should have a thickish scarlet emulsion, like a mayonnaise.  Gently stir in the vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

we used the roasted red pepper dressing as a pizza sauce since i'm not really a fan of tomato sauce.  it was delicious - kind of sweet and very flavorful.  i imagine it will also be good on salads, pasta, and i think it would pair well with cheese and crackers.