Roasted Capsicum

Ingredients
A whole lot of capsicum: whatever colour you want.
Olive Oil
Garlic
Salt & pepper
Red wine vinegar (optional)


Method

1. Wash capsicum and place on an oven tray with about a half to one centimetre of water in bottom.
2. Place in hot oven and cook until capsicum starts to blacken.
3. Take out of oven and place in a bowl which you can seal with a lid.  (Alternatively you can place them in a plastic bag according to Jan, but I don't quite understand this one if the capsicum are hot.) Keep sealed until cool.
4. Take capsicum out and peel off the outer skin and break into large strips.
5. Place the capsicum, and liquor from pan into a bowl with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. (You can add some vinegar if you want.)
6. Seal container and serve as part of antipasto or with bread.

Jan does a great continuation of this recipe where she lines a bowl with the capsicum.  She then makes a mixture of ricotta, parmesan, eggs and herbs and pours this into the bowl and covers the top with capsicum.  She then bakes this for about a half hour and serves with salad.

Capsicum

Sometimes called peppers, bell peppers... green, red or yellow? Or apparently orange, purple or white!  I believe the green are unripe red capsicums and the yellow ones, are well, just yellow!  Capsicums seem relegated to a support role:, ie they are  rarely served as a meal in themselves in the same way mushrooms, or eggplant or even potatoes can be.  I suppose capsicum are more about flavour than substance, with one or two exceptions..  My favourite recipes with capsicum are Ratatouille, paella, goulash.. and I always put a slice of green capsicum in my napoletana sauce for 'flavour'...  Back to substance.. Roasted capsicums, as part of antipasto are a great use of excess capsciums, which we rarely have in Alice Springs.  Alternatively, I tried stuffed capsicums last night... I'm not a big fan of stuffed vegetables.. these were OK, but I reckon it will be a couple of years before I venture here again.
The following recipe for roast capsicum is from my sister Jan.. and is a very Ingham (North Queensland) dish that my nonna would often have in her fridge, along with her breaded eggplant and olives which I always wished were grapes.