insalata di peperoni gialli, ruccola e pinoli
chilled pasta with yellow peppers, rocket and pinoli
I started cooking this recipe some time in the mid to late 1990s - it may well have been based on a Jaimie Oliver dish, to be honest I can’t remember - and it’s one that I’ve tweaked over the years and return to most summers at least once, usually when it’s too hot to want to spend any time cooking indoors. Of course, as it’s a chilled dish and does involve spending some time over a stove, you’ll need to plan your summer day’s cooking well - ideally, roast the peppers and put everything together by midday at the latest so the dish has time to cool and chill in the fridge before you eat it for dinner!
WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)
cook and clean the peppers
cut into strips
boil the pasta
drain the pasta
add rocket and wilt
toast / fry pinoli
combine ingredients
chill for 2 hours
chilled pasta with yellow peppers, rocket and pinoli
INGREDIENTS
FOR FOUR PEOPLE
one yellow pepper per person + one extra
at least 120g (4.2oz) fresh rocket
4 tablespoons
pinoli
pecorino
jalapeno or cayenne chilli
PASTA 500g
Mafalde Corte (Sainsburys)
MANTECATURA
little to moderate
METHOD
Cook and char the peppers on gas rings (or the nearest handy BBQ) until the skin is black and burnt and quite possibly smoking all over. Remove the skin by plunging the peppers into a bowl of cold water. Carefully slit each one and allow to fill with water - if they’ve come straight off the heat they will be superheated inside so let them fill with water and resit the tempation to rip them open with your hands! After a few seconds you can pull out the seeds and rub the black skin off with your fingertips.
Put the peeled peppers on a chopping board, pat dry with kitchen towel, then scrape any remaining burnt skin off with a knife. Cut the peppers into thin strips and set aside in a bowl, after adding salt and black pepper to taste. (You can store peppers in a jar in olive oil like this for a up to a week in a fridge - they’re ideal to add to salads or other pasta dishes!)
Boil the pasta, drain, sprinkle with EVO. Add all the rocket, mix, and then let it rest and cool in a large covered mixing bowl. The leaves will wilt and then you can mix again. Add loads of pecorino and black pepper to taste. I like to cut fresh jalapeno / cayenne peppers into thin strips and fry gently, allow them to cool, and then use as a final garnish. You can gently fry your pinoli at the same time, in a different pan. When the pasta’s at room temperature, chil in a fridge for at least 2 hours before garnishing with pinoli and chillis.
NUTRITION per serving
KCAL: 897
Fat (g): 44
Sat Fat (g): 7.7
Carb (g): 95.1
Sug (g): 20.1
Fibre(g): 10.9
Prot (g): 26.3
Salt (g): 0.78
Nutritional information is provided as an indication only of approximate values for the recipe on this page. You should make your own calculations if you have specific dietry requirements or are required to follow a strict calorie-controlled diet.
