Roasted red peppers are delicious and I put them on almost anything; from burgers to sandwiches to pizza you name it, I load them on! Most of the winter, I use roasted red peppers in a jar because they are just plain cheaper. I know cheaper isn’t better, but sometimes it is just plain practical.In the summer, though, I frequently roast my own red peppers. I know it seems counterintuitive to have the oven on in the middle of the summer, but I have also roasted the peppers on an outdoor grill (you know, when I used to have one), and they come out delicious then, too.

Roasted red peppers are going to be featured in Friday’s post so for that recipe John and I roasted a few peppers ourselves. We had a lot of fun and they are just so easy! In fact, this week at Haymarket, John asked for more peppers to roast. Roasting them fresh, wow, their taste is just delicious. It’s like taking a roasted red pepper and multiplying it by 10.

Roasted Red Peppers
Serves: 2 (1 pepper, 1/2 cup chopped)
1 red pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil

No real recipe here. Move a rack in the oven as high as it can go. Preheat your broiler. We cut our peppers in half and then oil the outsides of each. Make sure to get every crease (and a little in the cut sides). Place the skin sides up on a cookie sheet and place under the broiler. Watch carefully and in about 2-3 minutes, the skins should be blackened in spots. Remove the peppers from the oven and carefully place them into a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or tin foil tightly so the steam stays in the bowl. This helps loosen the skins. Remove the skins and cut the peppers.

So easy, so delicious. And, don’t forget to move your rack down to its normal spot. We forgot and that made for very difficult cookie making the next time I turned the oven on!!

Until the next time my oven is on…