Peperonata

Here's his workspace. You may remember we built this for him.

This must be the week for recipe requests because I've had another, this one from my wonderful son Justin.  Now that he has his great new kitchen in his Seattle condo he's starting to cook more regularly.  Remembering this dish from a number of years ago, he recently asked for the recipe and being a good mom I forgot for a few days… Sorry.

This isn't exactly a preserve but it's imminently preservable.  During the summer when tomatoes are at their best  I make it up in big batches, throw it into pint jars and waterbath can it for 40 minutes.  It's nice to have it on the shelf  for those nights that I need a quick pasta dish.  I just pop open a jar, add a little sausage–or not–then toss with gluten-free penne pasta.  Top with Pecorino Romano cheese (just like Parmesan only its made from sheep milk instead of cow for those of us who might be lactose intolerant) and add a salad, and that's meal.

Peperonata  (original recipe from Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop)       1 recipe makes about 3.5 pints ***note: I don't bother peeling or seeding the tomatoes unless I'm already processing tomatoes and happen to have some peeled and seeded at hand.

 3 tbsps Olive Oil
2 medium onions, halved and sliced thin
4 medium Bell peppers (about 1.5 pounds), cored, seeded and cut in 1″ strips
3 medium ripe tomatoes (about 1.5 pounds), cored, peeled, seeded and diced.
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves (strip them off their stems; the stems are very woody even though they're tiny) OR
1 tbsp dried thyme
~1/2 tsp salt or to taste
ground pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large saute pan.  Add the onions and peppers, and saute over medium heat until softened, about 6 minutes.  Add tomatoes, thyme, salt and pepper.  Simmer over medium-low heat covered for about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring once or twice along the way.

Maybe exposure to Paris at a young age affected him?

Fill your pint jars.  You can add Fruit Fresh if you want but I've never seen this discolor.  Of course, it's never stayed on the shelves long enough to discolor.  Top with lids and rings and process in a waterbath (the water should remain 3 inches above the top of the jars throughout the processing time) for 40 minutes.

So here you go, Justin!  If you don't want to can it, put it in jars and throw it in the freezer.  It'll keep that way for at least 3 months.