Colourful Family Food
I’ve never stuffed a pepper in my life so I figure if I’m going to do it I ought to make six at once.
I think I’m a convert. After all, it only takes a quick lop off of the tops and a scooping out of the seeds and you’ve an instant casing for a yummy filling. And that sure beats faffing around with pastry in my book. (Plus it’s healthier)….
I paired these two ingredients last week in my cichette Venetian style appetisers. Since I had a fair bit of each ingredient left they resurfaced in last night’s supper, a speedy tray of ciabatta mini pizzas.
Ciabatta keeps for a good week unopened in the fridge. I often buy a loaf if I’m anticipating guests who may or may not definitely be coming and not sure which day either. Everything else bar the cheese is store cupboard so it’s a very flexible appetiser or light meal that I first featured as sun blush tomato mini pizzas.
And if it turns out your guests are not coming after all, you can freeze the ciabatta until they do….
I foxed my husband on Saturday. He said “what’s for lunch” and I replied in an enthusiastic faux Spanish accent, huevos rancheros.
My husband doesn’t speak Spanish, nor for that matter do I….
Cooling down with hot guacamole…. Bought guacamole can be a lacklustre experience, whereas I’ll accept shop bought hummus (my own is better if available) I really can’t stick shop bought guacamole.
The slightest tinge of grey from the avocado really turns me off so only fresh will do. Finding avocados just how I like them is another minefield but makes eating them all the more satisfying when a perfect one opens up….
I ate these at a blog event recently although I’ve been racking my brains which one it was. Then I spent a weekend with Helen who served them as an appetiser. They’re kind of addictive.
If you’ve never heard of padrun peppers then I urge you to seek them out, they’re currently around £1.99 a bag in Waitrose although I’ve heard reports of Sainsbury’s stocking them too.
They’re barely bigger than hot chilli peppers and their preparation merely requires a quick stir fry in olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt.
Padrun peppers are mildly hot although now and again you get one that blows your head off. They’re the culinary equivalent of Russian Roulette.
The packs from Waitrose claim that around 1 in 30 has a kick although I’d say it’s closer to 1 in 10.
Maybe don’t feed them to the kids just incase they take a bite of rocket fuel but they’re marvellous as an appetiser when you’ve got friends round.
I cooked them for my parents in law the other weekend. They like growing green peppers in Serbia and my father in law isn’t averse to hot chilli so I thought these would amuse him.
Now I’m keeping my fingers crossed we’ll get them imported all the year round rather than them being a seasonal flash in the pan. Or maybe I’d appreciate them more if they were seasonal. Probably that’s preferable. But please please don’t let the season be too short.
Last month I visited Venice for my 40th birthday and one of the things I was eager to try was cichette style appetisers in a Venetian bar.
I will publish a Maison Cupcake post with the various Venetian dishes we tried but here is something I reproduced myself at home having been inspired during our trip.
Chargrill some red peppers – I am using my Le Creuset griddle pan which was also used in the courgette salad I published on Tumblr recently.
Now honestly, I did try to buy real polenta. But actually I could only get hold of a ready made block. Venetian white polenta would have been hard enough to find but I didn’t expect to struggle finding yellow polenta in a gigantic branch of Sainsbury’s. So ready made we have.
It slices up and carries tiger stripes extremely well and it tastes good too. Although admittedly you can’t soup it up with parmesan like you would if you made it from scratch.
To fire up my red chargrilled pepper I am using Fiery Chilli Sacla pesto which as you can see is one of numerous flavours – I have already instagrammed the wild garlic one in some stuffed mushrooms and there’s a tart post in the pipeline for Maison Cupcake using the classic basil.
This fiery chilli pesto packs a punch. I was rather taken aback how strong it was and it beefed up the Three Little Pigs salami beautifully.
To assemble the cichette simply stack polenta squares, pepper, a teaspoon of chilli pesto and a disc of salami and fix together with a cocktail stick. I could almost be in the backstreets of Fundamente Nove.
I had a trio of these cichette for lunch and when Ted saw the pictures he wanted them too. So my six year old had cichette for supper. Next he’ll be begging me to take him to Venice but that can wait.
Had you ever come across cichette?
With thanks to Three Little Pigs and Sacla for sample products.