Beans on toast, but make it jazzy
Piedmontese peppers was one of the first dishes I was taught to cook as a chef. There’s a picture on my homepage of me aged 21, no doubt I was stuffing a lot of peppers back then, as this was a stalwart of the menu of the restaurant I worked in at the time. Prep complete, these peppers honestly taste better and better for a day or two wallowing in their cooking juices, which makes them the easiest component to a dish ever; simply reheated in the oven for a couple of minutes to warm through, and hey presto, you’re good to go. Personally I love a little anchovy fillet nestled in the bed of the pepper, melting as the pepper cooks, but my children are not fans, and for the most part these days, I miss out the anchovies, lest any of my children recoil in horror at finding the fishy remains of an anchovy. However well they melt, my 3 kids have very efficient radars for anchovies, I have tried over the years!
The beans are my invention. When you write a single subject cookbook, your brain then whirs through all your best and favourite dishes and recipes you’ve ever eaten, you then find yourself squeezing in that specific ingredient wherever it will fit. Case in point, Butter Beans in a Piedmontese Pepper, it’s match made in - somewhere very beautiful indeed.
Top tip: these can be stuffed in advance and baked when you want, but better still, bake them and keep them in the fridge, including all their juices, to reheat whenever, they’ll be fine for up to three days in the fridge.
Another top tip: choose contrasting peppers to tomato colour for extra WOW.
INGREDIENTS
To feed 4 as a side dish
4 Bell pepper, red, orange or yellow
around 20 - 30 cherry tomatoes, depending on size, chopped in 1/2 or 1/4
4 large cloves garlic, finely sliced or chopped
4 large sprigs of herbs, use oregano, thyme, sage or basil, for example
12 black olives, pips removed and torn
Olive oil, enough!
Salt and pepper, to taste
200g butter beans, or any white bean
Ricotta, at least 40g per piece of toast, to serve
Toast, rubbed with a raw garlic clove, drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper, to serve
METHOD
Halve the peppers and remove the core and seeds.
Add garlic, salt and pepper and drizzle each pepper cavity with a little olive oil. Add the whole herb sprig. Spoon in as many butter beans as you can fit. Add as many tomatoes as you can fit, try to cover the beans with the tomatoes so they don’t dry out, as the tomatoes combust they will keep everything juicy. Add the torn olives and plenty of black pepper and a pinch of salt to each stuffed pepper.
Place the peppers on a baking tray and cover tightly with foil. Cook at 180C for at least 30 - 40 minutes for the peppers to cook and soften. Remove the foil, crank up the oven to 220C or grill under a high heat to get a bit of colour and for the juices in the pan to bubble, around 5 - 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and rest for at least 10 minutes.
Toast or grill your bread, rub all over with a raw garlic clove and drizzle over with enough olive oil, then slather each toast with a good amount of ricotta and place a pepper halve (or 2!) onto the piece of toast. Spoon over with some of the cooking juices, they are delicious.
Serve as is, or as accompaniment to lots and lots of your favourite dishes.