The skins may be pesky to peel away, but the result is this velvety and vibrant, flavourful pasta dish
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.
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