One of our party clients wanted an informal day but some fairly formal food as a lot of the guests were coming from culinary school in Switzerland for her party. They clearly wanted different salads, instead of the usual, for their gourmet guests. We suggested our own home grown lettuce and leaves for a green and red salad, the leaves to be picked on the day of the event from the Deli Truck HQ garden. We also suggested an old favourite from the south of France – a fabulously simple red pepper, fresh basil and garlic salad with a side of anchovy fillets.

Stacks of Peppers ready to be prepped for the grill

We char the peppers under a very hot grill, then in batches let them sweat in plastic bags, so the burnt skin just brushes off. It’s wonderful at this stage how the peppers completely change flavour to a deep nutty richness. They also start producing their own oil, we just add a bit of extra virgin olive oil to help things along, oh and fresh garlic of course. And with many many peppers to do – this will be a half day bake and make – but the smell at Deli Truck HQ is worth the effort. I personally don’t think there is a better smell than peppers being charred. 

The peppers after 10 minutes under a very hot grill

The blackened skins being peeling off the peppers

Peppers getting a big slurp of extra virgin olive oil

And the final result – peppers with Garlic on the buffet. We made 150 individual pieces of peperonata they all disappeared with in 45 minutes.