Twenty years ago I tried making roasted peppers at home. I spent 30 minutes hovering over my kitchen burner rotating a fork-skewered pepper and another 10 minutes cleaning up the stove-top mess.
The process yielded a single roasted pepper. It was slightly raw in patches and tough to peel, as I recall.
After that I switched to La Squista’s jarred version—and still frequently rely on those excellent commercially prepared peppers.
But each summer when my farm stand features a bumper crop of beautiful yellow and red peppers at low, peak-season prices, I feel a twinge of regret. So I was thrilled to find a truly easy and painless method of oven-roasting multiple peppers from The Wednesday Chef’s .
Unlike the arduous stove-top method, oven-cooking yields full flavored, lusciously soft roasted peppers, see photos below.
Easy oven-roasted peppers
2-4 red or yellow peppers
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Line a jelly roll sheet with foil.
- Wash peppers and lay them on their sides on the foil.
- Slide sheet into oven and roast peppers for 15 minutes.
- Slide sheet out of oven and, using tongs or a fork, give peppers a quarter turn. Be sure to handle the peppers carefully so you do not puncture them and burn yourself on the steam that builds up inside the peppers. Put sheet back into the oven.
- Check peppers and give them a quarter turn every 15 minutes until they are roasted on all sides and soft to the point of collapse—about 45 minutes.
- Remove peppers from oven and let them sit until cool enough to handle.
- Gently pull stem from peppers—if you are careful you will be able to neatly remove most of the seeds with one gliding tug.
- Slice peppers open on one side and scrape away remaining seeds.
- The pepper’s skin should be wrinkly and loose. Grasp the skin at the edge of the pepper and carefully peel off the skin in sections.
- Use peppers immediately—try my Penne with Roasted Red Peppers and Pan-Fried Potatoes—or store in air-tight container in fridge until ready to use. You may also freeze peppers—but be aware they lose some of their firmness after freezing. Thawed roasted peppers are best incorporated into slow-cooked dishes such as Hearty Red Pepper and Corn Vegetarian Chili, or puréed recipes such as hummus or Romanesco Sauce.
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For easier peeling of the skins, remove peppers from the oven and place them in a paper bag for 15-20 minutes and afterwards the skins can be easily removed.