How to Roast a Red Pepper

I am going to move away from the French theme from the past few days and would like to try something new.  I don't do very many "how tos" on this blog, but often find myself telling friends and family how I did something for part of a recipe or how I use local summery ingredients in the wintertime...so why not share here too?  Over the summer, I'd like to talk a little about how I store my extra veggies I get from my CSA, but we'll get to that as we get further into the summer.

Today, though, I'd like to talk about how to roast a red pepper.  Roasting a red pepper is easier than you think...and much cheaper than buying them jarred.  Start with several red peppers.  Feel free to roast as many as you'd like here since you can easily store them for future use.  Place them directly on your gas burners, or if you have an electric stovetop, place them on a cookie sheet under your broiler.  Turn them every so often with tongs.  You want all sides to be almost completely black.  This should take about 10 minutes or so.

When all sides are blackened, remove the peppers to a large paper or ziplock bag and close tightly.  You could also place them in a large bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap.  Leave them there for about 20 minutes or so until they've cooled.  You should be able to peel them easily at this point.

Once you've peeled them, rinse them, cut them in half and remove the stem and seeds.  Cut them into strips.  And voilà, you have roasted red peppers!  I used the ones below in some veggie wraps, but you can use them for any recipe that calls for them.  If you'll be using them in the next week or so, cover them with olive oil in a sealed container and store in the refrigerator.  You can also freeze them in single layers on wax paper and then seal them in an airtight freezer bag.  They should last for a few months this way--just defrost and use!  You may lose some of the texture this way, so frozen roasted peppers are best used in recipes where the texture doesn't matter as much (such as quiches).

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