What crane-fly (onion), kerezy (cherry) or piku (fig), piper is one of those Basque words that comes directly from Latin. And as it happens in English with pepper, is used interchangeably to designate pepper, known in the West since Roman times, and pepper, which arrived much later after the arrival of the conquerors in America. A mess whose origin is in the spicy resemblance that Europeans saw to the Asian spice and to the chiles of the new continent, and that the Castilian spoken in Spain resolved using the feminine for one thing and the masculine for the other.
Knowing this little linguistic curiosity will not help you in the preparation of a piperrada, but it is always good to drop it when you serve it. Your diners will be so delighted with the dish that they will surely forgive you the turra, because it is difficult not to feel magnanimous when you are invited to eat something so delicious. It is popular Basque-Navarre food at its best, as simple in ingredients as happy in results.
The red and green peppers, main artists of the party, give it their all in the piperrada, perfectly accompanied by the sweetness of the onion and contrasted by the mild acidity of the tomato. This preparation is, basically, a kind of ratatouille, and it holds no more secret than patience: the vegetables here require slow and long cooking, which caramelizes them and extracts their most pleasant flavours.
The piperrada has other advantages: to make it you don’t need to turn on the oven, it lasts several days in the fridge -or months if you freeze it or can it- and it is a 100% multipurpose dish. It shines on plain toast, but perfectly accompanies any meat or grilled or grilled fish. Although it is quite usual to combine it with Cod, cooking it slowly on the piperrada itself until it turns white and its flakes separate, it should be remembered that tuna also goes to the hair, both cool What canned. And, although it is normal to eat it hot, I love it at room temperature, preferably with anchovies or olives on top.
Now, if there is an ingredient that I would do match on Tinder it’s the egg. You can fry it or you can cook it, or you can even make an omelette with a generous spoonful of piperrada for each egg. But surely what will give you the least trouble is to put the piperrada in a pan, heat it, crack the eggs on top, cover and wait for the heat to do its magic. Watching, yes, that the yolk does not set, to fully enjoy its liquid and creamy state.
My piperrada recipe follows the tradition, except for a couple of details: I prefer to put the garlic at the end in refried mode with a tablespoon of sherry vinegar to contrast, and I remove the skin from the green peppers because if they are very skinny it is a little annoying to find it on the plate. This last step is completely optional, and you can skip it if you’re not a picky eater.
Difficulty
You don’t need to know Latin.
Ingredients
for 4 people
- 2 large green bell peppers
- 2 medium red bell peppers
- 2 medium spring onions
- 400 g of peeled tomato (can be canned)
- 1 clove garlic
- 8 eggs
- 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
- Olive oil
- Salt
Preparation
- If you want to peel the green peppers, remove the seeds and the stem and make a cross cut at the tip. Put them in the microwave covered for a minute and a half, let them cool and peel them as much as possible (it’s okay because there’s some skin left).
- Julienne the spring onion and put it in a large frying pan with a splash of olive oil over medium-low heat. Allow to poach, stirring occasionally, for about 15-20 minutes, or until soft.
- Meanwhile, chop the peppers into strips that are not too long, approximately one centimeter wide. Incorporate them into the onion when it is poached, stir, lightly salt and cover. Let them cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and well cooked.
- While the peppers are done, de-seed and chop the tomato. Add it to the peppers when they are done, stir and let it cook for another 20 minutes, or until the tomato has lost a good part of its liquid. Correct salt.
- Chop the garlic and brown it over medium-low heat in a small pan or saucepan with a splash of oil. Lower the heat, let the temperature of the oil drop a little and add the Sherry vinegar. Stir, cook for a minute, pour it all over the pan with the peppers and stir. Up to here it can be done in advance
- With the hot piperrada, make some holes in it for the eggs, crack them on top and salt them. Cover and cook over low heat until the white has set but the yolk is still liquid. Serve immediately accompanied by a good bread.
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