My wife made chicken parmigiana for our dinner on New Year’s Eve and I cooked pasta to go with it, as well as roasted peppers, which I’d cooked for the first time the day before (video below). What’s funny is that I’ve never been into cooking but 2020 pretty much forced me (and probably countless others) to get into it.

Before my wife and I moved in together (we commuted for the first three years), I never cooked. In fact, in my old apartment where I lived for ten years, I never turned on the stove once! I was rarely home and when I was, I always ate out. Fortunately where I lived, there were plenty of healthy options all around.

One of my favorite restaurants to get Italian food, especially roasted red peppers, is Raffaello Ristorante. Since it’s a long drive from my house and I’ve really been adhering to California’s stay at home orders, I decided to try making them myself.

We have a Google Nest Hub in our kitchen so I asked Google how to roast peppers and got multiple recipes. However, I had to dig a little deeper to learn how to actually roast them. Is that embarrassing or what?

I really can’t believe I waited so long to learn how to roast peppers as it’s so easy, cheap and of course, delicious! All you do is wash whole red, yellow and/or orange peppers (not green) and put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Set the oven to 400 degrees and place them in the upper third of the oven. I set a timer for every 10 minutes and rotate them with tongs. The skin eventually turns black and after about 50 minutes, you take them out and let them cool for about 30 minutes. Then you peel the burnt skin off, cut the stem and the seeds out and slice them in long strips.

Then put them in a bowl and marinate them in olive oil and season them with salt, pepper, garlic, parsley and basil (or whatever you prefer).

Here’s the recipe I followed but I tweaked it a bit.

YouTube video

The author wrote: “Warning: the scent of roasting peppers is intoxicating!” I thought for sure she was exaggerating but she definitely wasn’t. The fragrance of the roasted peppers filled the house and my wife and I both loved it!

5 Comments On "How To Roast Peppers Italian Style"
  1. tony manzi|

    Since the goal is to burn them you can use the broiler and it will go a lot quicker with the same end results.

    1. Johnny Jet|

      Good to know! Will try it next time.

  2. Anonymous|

    I like to use the mini sweet peppers

  3. Mmichaelr|

    I like to use mini sweet peppers

  4. Don smith|

    Gas grill max temp. load with pepper. Green are ok. Rotating often till black. Put in paper bag to steam and cool. Cut And remove stem and seeds. Scrape off burnt skin. Put in bowl add olive oil s&p garlic. My wife Italian family had been making pepper like this for 50 60 years.

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