Worth trying just for the beauty of it!
It is the perfect time.
The markets have red and yellow late summer peppers on the stalls and the tomatoes are sweet end of season numbers.
The last few from the garden
This will be lunch today served on a piece of rye toast (for me–wholewheat for Meredith) with a poached egg perched on top.
750gms/1.5 lbs red and yellow peppers (or just red if you can’t find yellow)–seeded and sliced in strips
1 tablespoon olive oil
350 gms/12 oz ripe tomatoes–peeled and chopped
1 medium onion–sliced thinly
2 cloves of garlic–sliced
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
- Heat the oil in a medium pan you can cover.
- Sauté the onion to soften it for five minutes then add the sliced garlic; turn it in the onion and oil and cook for a couple more minutes.
- Add the pepper slices and the bay leaves, turning these over in the mixture.
- Cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes to soften the peppers, turning them a couple of times.
- Add the tomatoes, some salt and pepper, mix them in and cover the pan again–let this cook gently for 20 minutes.
- If he mix is a little too liquid, cook it another 5 minutes or so uncovered.
- Add the teaspoon of balsamic and mix in well.
- A spoonful of tapinade makes a nice contrast with the colours of Catalonia (to the south of us here)
The flag of Catalonia!
- and cuts the sweetness of the peppers–but then you have to make the tapinade!
- For us now it’s a poached egg.
Robin Ellis 
Robin, I was deeply moved to see the flag of my country in your blog. Thank you, thank you, thank you. The detail of the flag has been a nice gesture for a small country. That gift and the delicious look of your peperonata sorted out my day – grim, indeed (You know, damn Monday!).
In Catalunya we have a very similar dish called “escalivada”: the only difference is that it also has got aubergine and is cooked in the oven. That peperonata is making me hungry. Now is too late for me to cook escalivada, but tomorrow maybe ….
Thanks again.