What a great time of year! Gardens are overflowing with beautiful, fresh veggies. Right
now, I've got the most beautiful hot cherry peppers. There's nothing
like being outside on a warm summer night before an outdoor fire
enjoying a nice glass of wine and antipasto (cured meats, olives,
artichoke hearts, anchovies, i.e.) with my own stuffed hot cherry
peppers.
You can make your own, too. Here's the recipe.
- Fresh cherry peppers with stems. You will need enough peppers to fill the jar or jars you want to fill. Use sweet or hot peppers. Using both red and green makes the jars look colorful.
- White vinegar
- Canola oil
- Olive Oil (I use extra virgin)
- Extra sharp provolone cheese (block form not sliced)
- Prosciutto
- Fresh Basil
- Fresh Parsley
- Fresh Oregano
- Wash the cherry peppers. Leave the stems on the peppers.
- Place all the peppers in a container.
- Pour enough white vinegar over the peppers to cover them. The peppers will float so you will need to place something on top of the peppers to keep them below the surface of the vinegar.
- Let peppers soak for 4 - 7 days. The longer the soak, the more vinegar you will taste. I put the container in the refrigerator because the vinegar will attract fruit fleas.
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| Peppers floating in vinegar |
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| Peppers below the surface |
After soaking for the desired time,
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| Cored peppers, prosciutto & extra sharp provolone cheese |
- Remove the peppers from the vinegar.
- Carefully remove the stem, seeds and core being careful to keep the pepper whole
- Cut a square of provolone to a size to fit into the center of the cherry pepper.
- Wrap the cheese with some provolone and place inside the cherry pepper. Make sure it fits snugly so that it doesn't fall out of the pepper.
- Place inside a clean ball jar.
- Repeat 3-5 until the jar is full.
- Sprinkle some basil, parsley and oregano over the peppers in the jar.
- Fill the jar at least half way with Canola oil.
- Fill the rest of the jar with olive oil.
- Place a lid and band on the jar and store in the refrigerator.
- Peppers should sit for at least 7 days before eating. It's all right if the oil looks a bit cloudy and the olive oil may solidify a little. Before serving, take the jar out of the refrigerator and allow it to sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes so that the olive oil liquifies.
Gustare con un bicchiere di vino rosso e pane croccante.
(Enjoy with red wine and crusty Italian bread.)
