Piperade
Today, we are diving into Antoine’s childhood. One filled with comforting dishes made by his grandmother. In fact, these photos are taken from grandmother's kitchen so that whenever we look back we remember this moment. One of these dishes is piperade: a French vegan dish originating from Southwest France made with tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions, garlic and Espelette pepper. This versatile dish can be eaten alone (with some eggs or boiled potatoes) or used as a sauce for other dishes such as eggplant fritters (as shown in the photo) or pasta. Antoine’s grandmother usually waits for the summer to buy loads of ripe and juicy tomatoes to make several batches of piperade that she then freezes to enjoy over the winter months. Her recipe doesn’t call for sweet peppers but still tastes great. Try it and you will decide what is best for you!
The ingredients are given for 4 medium servings.
INGREDIENTS
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6 medium ripe tomatoes (Roma or grape)
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6 cloves of garlic
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1 medium onion
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1 parsley bunch
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2 bay leaves
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2 tsp of ground Espelette pepper
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Olive oil
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Salt & black pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
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Boil some water and pour it on the tomatoes and let them soak for 1-2 minutes. Peel the tomatoes and dice them.
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Peel and slice the garlic cloves. Peel and slice the onion.
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In a hot sauce pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onions and get them translucid on medium heat. Then add the garlic and fry it until slightly golden.
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Add the tomatoes, the parsley bunch, the bay leaves, 2 pinches of salt and increase the heat to medium/high to reduce the quantity of water. Once the volume reduced by ¼, turn the heat to low, cover the saucepan and cook for 30 minutes.
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After 30 minutes, taste the piperade and add salt, pepper and Espelette pepper to taste. Remove the parsley bunch and the bay leaves.
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The piperade is ready. Enjoy!
