by Janet Farricelli CPDT-KA

Created on: April 25, 2009

When peppers are roasted something magical happens: the pepper's skin will burn, allowing the pepper to assume a smoky, slightly burnt flavor that makes them particularly appetitive. They then become soft, mouth watery and amazingly tasty. Roasted peppers today can be found in jars, in oil and vinegar still with some charred skin over them. They are considered gourmet food, often with a nice price tag.

Peppers however, can be be roasted at home from the comfort of your kitchen. All you will need to do is go to your grocery and pick the nicest bell peppers you can. While red peppers are the most commonly roasted, you can experiment and roast yellow, green and red peppers. This will make a nice eye appealing mix.

Choosing nice peppers is not a difficult task. You must look for clean, crisp, fleshy peppers with no soft spots which are indicative that they are soon going to waste. Pick the crunchy, crisp peppers that look nice and healthy. Then at home wash them well and set them to dry.

While the preferred method for roasting peppers is on a live fire, you can use your broiler as a substitute. Turn the broiler on high and in the meanwhile, start passing some olive oil on the pepper's surface. At this point you can place the peppers on a broiler pan. You can then cook the peppers for a few minutes, usually not more than ten.

Do not be concerned if the pepper turns black. This is ultimately what you want. What may look like a disaster is really far from being one. The skin is simply burnt but only superficially. Your kitchen at this point should be releasing a nice peppery smell. Place the pepper on a plate and allow to cool.

Do not attempt to peel the skin off immediately, you can get seriously burnt because the peppers are extremely hot and steamy. However you do not want them to cool too much or the skin may be more difficult to remove. Once you feel comfortable in handling them, begin peeling off the blackened skin. You will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to peel it off!

As an alternative, you can allow the steam to take care of the skin without the need to peel it off yourself. You can easily accomplish this by taking the pepper out of the broiler with some tongs and by inserting the pepper in a zip lock bag. Close the bag and shake the pepper vigorously: this allows the vapor to take care of the skin. Then, wash the pepper under some cool running water to remove all the skin residue.

You may however, be a bit disappointed with the amount of pepper you are left with. The pepper flesh may have shrunk in the process of broiling. However, once you taste the roasted peppers you will forget about this mishap. Or maybe, you will remember it because you wished you had more!

Once you have peeled all your peppers, slice them in strips. You may at this point, add some salt, pepper, Italian dressing, minced onion and a few onion rings and eat them pickled this way. Or you may savour them in a variety of ways, like by adding them to an omelet, frying them with potatoes, adding them to some rice or to your favorite salad. However you eat them, you will be surprised at how easy it is to roast peppers and how tasty they are no matter how you serve them.

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