A colourful feast for the eyes: Piedmontese roasted peppers make a delicious light lunch and are a perfect partner for chicken. This classic Italian dish is Paleo and Whole30.
Aren’t these Piedmontese peppers a feast for the eyes?
There are days when you need a bit more colour in your life to cheer yourself up. Like today:
Outside: grey sky.
My outfit: grey jumper & black jeans.
I looked in the mirror: Let’s not go there.
Time for some serious Italian food passion!
The Piedmont is a region in the northwest of Italy at the foot of the Alps. It has AMAZING cuisine – hearty and simple.
The sweetness of the roasted peppers with their browned edges combined with the garlicky tomatoes and the saltiness of anchovies are a divine combination.
Don’t be put off by the idea of adding fish to a vegetable dish – the anchovies melt into the tomatoes and create a delicious sauce that is not fishy at all.
How to make perfect Piedmontese peppers
As always, it is the quality of the raw ingredients that make or break a dish, so look out for really decent peppers and vine ripened tomatoes.
I found this recipe in an old Delia Smith cookbook I was leafing through in a cafe years ago and it has been one of my favourite happy dishes ever since.
Every time I make it I can’t believe how something so simple to make can taste so good! It is, frankly, summer on a plate. 
Together with some chunky bread to scoop up the garlicky juices – one of the yummiest parts of this dish – these roasted peppers make a great light lunch.
They also work well as part of an antipasti buffet or partnered with roast chicken or lamb for a weekend family feast.
Any leftovers can be cut up and used as a flavoursome pasta sauce or tossed into a green salad.
My tip: Make a large portion. This dish is so good it would be a shame if you do not get seconds.
Try my other Italian-inspired recipes:
- Low Carb Bolognese Sauce (Hidden Veggies!)
- Sugar Free Walnut Cookies (Italian Walnut Kisses)
- Strawberry Mascarpone Tart
Tried this recipe? Give it a star rating below!
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Piedmontese Roasted Peppers
Summer on a plate - juicy and flavourful, these Piedmontese roasted peppers are a classic Italian dish.
Ingredients
- 8 red and yellow peppers green do not work
- 8 medium tomatoes
- 16 tinned anchovy fillets drained
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 16 tsp olive oil
- black pepper
- basil leaves to serve
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 180 Celsius
- Cut your peppers in half, leaving the stalks intact. They are not edible but help the peppers keep their shape. And of course, they also look nice!
- Scoop/cut out the seeds and place the pepper halves in a lightly oiled, shallow baking tray. If the sides of the tray are too high, the veggies won't get those lovely toasted edges.
- Now it's time to skin the tomatoes. This step is not 100% necessary, but not having the skins does make the dish more refined. It's easy: Lay the tomatoes in a pot and pour boiling water over them. After a minute, drain the water and the skins can be peeled off easily. I hold the tomatoes with a fork to protect my hands
- Cut the tomatoes into quarters and place two quarters in each pepper
- Peel and crush the garlic cloves and scatter evenly over the pepper halves.
- Use one anchovy fillet per pepper half, snipped into little pieces
- Pour 1 teaspoon of olive oil into each pepper and season with freshly milled black pepper (but no salt because of the anchovies!)
- Roast in the oven for 1 hour
- Depending on the size of the peppers, serve up to 4 pepper halves per portion. Mine were quite small, so I did manage all four on my plate
Recipe Notes
Serves 8 as a side and 4 as a main dish.
Carla says
March 28, 2018 at 4:59 pmI absolutely adore roasted peppers and this recipe takes them to the next level. We enjoyed it with some grilled garlic chicken. What a wonderfully tasty dish. The Italians really know how to make food taste GREAT!
Katrin says
March 28, 2018 at 5:00 pmI absolutely agree with you and I’m really happy you had a lovely meal. Thank you for your comment!