Rachel Roddy’s recipe for pasta with red peppers and anchovies or goat’s cheese

There’s no two ways about it: charring and then peeling red, yellow or orange peppers is a messy business. Just out of the oven (if they haven’t burst while baking), roasted and blackened peppers are not unlike mini balloons; the hot juices, which have collected in the cavity, gushing out as the collapsed pepper is manoeuvred from the baking tray to the bowl. Once they have steamed under a plate, and cooled a little, the peppers might be easier to handle, but the thin scales of charred skin are still pesky to peel away, and however hard you try to flick them into the bin, they will stick to forearms and foreheads, as do the slippery white seeds. Having peeled peppers, it is not unusual to find a seed stuck to the back of my upper arm six hours later. Messy and annoying, but also worthwhile, because a strip of peeled pepper freed from its cellophane skin is a wonderful thing: fleshy with velvet texture and a deep, sweet, smoky flavour.

I was taught to char peppers on the stovetop by a friend’s Greek mum, balancing them on the gas ring directly over the naked flame and turning regularly. It is sometimes hard to get them to balance and they often wobble off, but if you use a barbecue regularly, that is another option, as is the oven, and apparently the air fryer, too. Whichever method you use, the aim is flesh that is almost completely or well-patched black, and cracked like bark – a bit shocking the first time, but rest assured that the more charred they are, the redder the flesh underneath.

Thick strips of tricolour peppers dressed with olive oil, red-wine vinegar and a little of the juice that gushed from the cavity (and hopefully caught in a bowl) are gorgeous just so, or topped with anchovy fillets and black olives, or crumbled feta, as a side dish. They also make a good topping for rounds of toast spread with goat’s cheese or mashed beans, alternatively, they can be paired with pasta, an idea borrowed from Ottavio Cavalcanti’s La Cucina Calabrese and Elizabeth David. I like to blend a third of the peppers into a cream, while ripping the rest into strips, short and slim enough to mix and cling to the pasta (most shapes work). You then have two options for additions: anchovy fillets or crumbled goat’s cheese, neither of which are messy or annoying.

Pasta with red peppers and anchovies or goat’s cheese

Serves 4

4 red peppers, or a mix of red and yellow
Olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled; 1 left whole, 1 minced
1 small fresh or dried red chilli
300g tomatoes, peeled (plunge into boiling water for three minutes, then into cold water), or tinned
4-6 anchovies (optional)
450-500g pasta (fusilli, penne, radiatori, mezze maniche)
Basil
1 round goat’s cheese (optional)

Put the peppers on a baking tray and in a 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 oven for 30-40 minutes, turning them once or twice, or until they are charred all over and starting to collapse. Carefully lift the peppers into a bowl and cover with a plate for 20 minutes, so they steam and cool enough to handle. Working over the bowl to catch the juices, rub the charred skin from the peppers and tear into thick strips, brushing away the seeds and pith. Put the clean strips on a plate.

Take a third of the pepper strips and, working in a food processor, blend them until smooth, seasoning with a little salt. Tear the remaining peppers into small strips that will toss well with pasta.

In a large flying pan, warm five tablespoons of olive oil with the whole garlic clove and chilli. Once the garlic is fragrant, add the tomatoes and cook for about 12-15 minutes, pressing down with the back of a spoon to break them up into a sauce. Add the anchovies, if you are including them, stirring so they break up in the sauce.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil, salt it, and cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Add the pepper strips to the tomatoes, along with the minced garlic, stir, then add the blended peppers.

When the pasta is al dente, lift from the water into the sauce and stir vigorously, along with a handful of basil and the crumbled goat’s cheese, if you are adding it.