Market Dinner on a Rainy Night

Ahhhhh...a rainy day leading to a rainy evening means I'll be inspired to cook something up.

When the weather is nice, we tend to spend the evenings in the piazza, enjoying our pals and a bottle of wine. Dinner sometimes gets forgotten or may just be prepared soup and a bit of bread. Last night I knew were in for the night, so I took advantage of the "Small But Mighty" kitchen here at The Nut.

We had stopped a few days ago at a favorite vegetable and fruit stand, and I picked out a nice selection...

I knew when I bought these long sweet peppers that I wanted to grill them, so out came the grill pan.

The house smelled so good!

The colors are so pretty!

I'm a fan of a good char. I flipped these several times.

While the peppers grilled, I prepared the potatoes and onions...just a simple dice and a toss with salt, pepper and olive oil.

These are the sweetest little yellow onions!

My secret ingredient for this oven roasted dish was a nice amount of fennel seeds I'd collected on our morning walks. I always give them a good soak to clean them, then lay them out to dry. This took a couple of days, but well worth it. I try to have these wild fennel seeds on hand. Once dry, I'll store them in a small jar. I used this whole batch.

Once the peppers were grilled, I set them aside to cool down a little. Then, I stuffed them with Stracciatella, a popular soft cheese found in most shops here. It is a mild flavored cheese, but so creamy and melty!

I dusted these with some smoked sweet paprika

I put both pans in the oven, and let the cheese get nice and melted. I pulled the peppers out first, to enjoy as the potatoes finished roasting.

I tried my hand at making pickles earlier this week from another type of sweet red pepper, and they came out great! We had them on the side with our stuffed peppers. 

I also pickled sliced red onions, which we'll use sometime soon, I'm sure. The pickling was a fun experiment.

Served on a bed of arugula.
This was a great first course.

The fragrance in the house, between the peppers with paprika and the fennel with the potatoes! Yum!

The potatoes were nicely roasted, a little chew on the outside, creamy on the inside. Great flavors all around. We added more arugula, and Johnny added some tomatoes to his potato dish.

 

This is a great two course meal for your vegetarian friends. Super easy. The peppers could be grilled in advance, then stuffed and baked later. You could prep the potatoes and onions and let them marinate, too.

It just reminds me that I so enjoy cooking, and I need to do more! Fortunately, there is rain in the forecast for several days, so I'll be in the kitchen, for sure...I think I see hand made pasta in the near future...

Stay tuned!