Every Saturday morning, from April through December, whether in Seattle or Portland, I head to one of the many inspiring Northwest farmers markets. You might think I would become jaded after awhile, but it hasn’t happened.

Every week, I’m blown away by the gorgeous, tantalizing offerings, and every week I buy way more than I can cook over the weekend. I do this even though there is this strange man following me around, intermittently interjecting, “Enough already! You can’t cook all that.” I pretend to have no idea who he is, but of course it’s that rascal, MauiJim.

Well, this past Saturday was no exception. The sweet bell peppers were calling my name. Portland Farmers Market was overflowing with every color and every shape of pepper imaginable. The purple bell peppers were especially appealing.

I couldn’t resist, recalling an article I wrote for Cooking Light magazine some years ago that included 5-6 dishes starring sweet bell peppers. One dish in particular has been begging for a remake. And yes, it’s Mostaccioli with Sweet Rainbow Peppers. The tomato, fennel, and onion sauce is loaded with roasted peppers and quite unlike any pasta dish I have ever experienced: light, sweet, smoky, and meaty all at the same time.

I think you’re going to love it. Plus it’s a great way to use all those peppers you purchased at the market.

If you need a refresher on roasting bell peppers, check out Roasting Peppers Step-By-Step before making this dish.

Mostaccioli with Rainbow Peppers

Here is a colorful and satisfying pasta dish, perfect on its own or accompanied by the best local sausages you can find. I love the French sausages produced by Laurelhurst Market in Portland, Oregon. The spicing reminds me of country-style pate and is very nice with the clean, sweet flavor of the peppers and the tomato fennel sauce.

2 medium green bell peppers, roasted, peeled, cored, and seeded
2 medium red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, cored, and seeded
2 medium yellow bell peppers, roasted, peeled, cored, and seeded

3 tablespoons cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped onion (1 medium-sized onion)
1 cup chopped fennel bulb (½ large fennel bulb)
2 teaspoons minced garlic (2-3 cloves garlic) 
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed with a mortar and pestle
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional

6 cups fresh, peeled, chopped vine ripened tomatoes with juice (about 4 pounds whole tomatoes; or three 14½ ounce cans chopped tomatoes)
1 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 pound dried mostaccioli, penne, ziti, or rigatoni pasta

¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup fresh basil leaves, cut lengthwise into thin strips

1. Cut the roasted peppers into ¼-inch wide by 1½-inch strips. Reserve.
2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and sweat the onions and fennel bulb, covered, over low heat until softened but not browned.
3. Add the garlic, fennel seed, and optional red pepper flakes; continue cooking for an additional minute or so.
4. Add the tomatoes and simmer slowly for about 15-20 minutes, until sauce has thickened somewhat and only a little liquid remains.
5. Taste the sauce and add the salt and pepper, adjusting the seasoning level to your taste.
6. Add the bell peppers, warm through, and again adjust the seasonings. Do not be tempted to adjust the acidity of the Tomato sauce with a little sugar or honey as is customary. The roasted peppers are quite sweet and need a counterbalance of acidity.
7. While the sauce is cooking, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta.  Boil, uncovered, for about 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender but still somewhat firm.
8. Drain.
9. Combine the drained pasta, sauce, and basil in a large pasta serving bowl and toss well to combine.
10. Sprinkle the Parmesan over the pasta and serve immediately.

Serves 6-8.

When Columbus first set foot on the Caribbean island that is now shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, he was hoping to find black pepper, the world’s most costly spice. Instead he found the genus Capsicum which the native inhabitants called aji. Probably a little frantic that his expedition was going unexpectedly awry, he quickly renamed the spicy vegetable, pepper, and while he was at it, the Arawak natives, Indians, to support the idea that he had indeed found a western trade route to India.

Columbus may have been mistaken on both counts, but the discovery of Capsicum peppers was perhaps the most fortuitous food discovery made by early explorers. Today the genus (which includes peppers both blindingly hot and mild as summer rain) gives the world its most widely used flavoring.

In the mild category, sweet bell peppers are used extensively in their countries of origin, namely Central and Latin America, as well as in Mexico and the American Southwest. Spanish and Portuguese traders first introduced the new genus to countries where spice appreciation was already well established, namely India, the Middle East, and the Far East. Hungary was an early sweet pepper enthusiast as well, followed closely by Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and finally, England, which reintroduced the vegetable to American soil with the early colonists.

Though peppers were not a popular crop in colonial America, American cooks eventually warmed to the idea of including them in their developing regional cuisines. By 1888, Burpee’s Farm Annual offered some twenty varieties of pepper seeds. Today there are over one hundred sweet pepper cultivars on the market. California and Florida produce most of America’s sweet pepper crop, so it is understandable that both of these regional cuisines represent the sweet pepper well. Exemplary use is also made of sweet peppers in Northwest cuisine and Creole-Cajun cuisine.

At some point in early culinary history, cooks (probably Native American cooks) noticed that the skins of many peppers, particularly the sweet varieties, toughen and become less digestible when cooked slowly in a liquid environment. Since campfires were close at hand, it would have been noticed that this papery skin separates when charred, making it easily removable. Good cooks in every corner of the world have been roasting and skinning their sweet bell peppers ever since.

While you lose the bright taste and crisp texture of fresh peppers when you roast them, you obtain in exchange an irresistible smoky flavor and a lush, almost meaty texture. In fact, peppers become an entirely different ingredient when treated in this manner.

The rule of thumb is this: If you plan to use the peppers raw or in a quick sauté or stir-fry, leave them as is. Otherwise, roast and skin them.  And now that you know the rule, you may of course break it any time you wish.

Roasting Peppers Step-by-Step

The following directions for roasting and skinning peppers will become second nature after you’ve roasted a couple batches of peppers. Cutting the peppers in half before roasting saves a lot of tedious rotating in the oven and provides perfect results every time.

Note If you are handling hot peppers, wear disposable plastic gloves, and be very careful not to touch your face. Also, some supposedly mild peppers, such as poblanos, can on occasion be quite hot. If in doubt, wear gloves.

Broiler Method

This method is preferred for large quantities of peppers. It’s quick and relatively easy.

1. Cut bell peppers in half lengthwise through the core.
2. Cut around the stem on each half. Remove the stem, along with all seeds and fleshy ribs.
3. Coat an edged baking pan with vegetable spray. Place pepper halves (or quarters if peppers are quite large), preferably not touching, skin-side-up, on the pan.
4. Broil, as close to the heating element as possible, for about 12-15 minutes, until the pepper skins are uniformly blackened.
5. Remove baking pan from the oven and, using tongs, place pepper halves into a large bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and leave peppers to steam for 15 minutes.
6. Remove pepper halves from the bowl. Hold each half under cool running water and gently peel away the charred, papery skin.
7. Pat peppers dry with paper towels and slice, dice, or chop according to recipe directions.

Direct Flame Method

This method is useful if you need to roast only 1 or 2 peppers. It requires an open flame, as in a gas stove top.

1. Hold a whole pepper with flame-proof metal tongs, and place the pepper directly into the open flame of a gas burner.
2. As the surface of the pepper blackens, turn the pepper to evenly blacken the entire surface.
3. Place blackened peppers into a large bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and leave peppers to steam for 15 minutes.
4. Remove pepper halves from the bowl. Hold each half under cool running water and gently peel away the charred, papery skin.
5. Pat peppers dry with paper towels, and then cut around the stems and remove.
6. Cut the peppers in half lengthwise, and remove the seeds and fleshy ribs.
7. Slice, dice, or chop according to recipe directions.

We are in love with full-meal salads in the OtherWorldly Kitchen, and I scramble every week to come up with a couple of new and memorable offerings. However, it’s challenging to make a dinner salad  if seafood, poultry, or meat is not included.

Enter the indispensible log of mild goat cheese. It’s always on hand in my kitchen, because it lends itself to so many dishes. I wouldn’t want to be without it.

Luckily, the Northwest is home to some of the best goat cheese makers in the country (or the world for that matter). Some of these are highlighted at the Pacific Northwest Cheese Project and in the informative book, Artisan Cheese of the Pacific Northwest by Tami Parr. For this salad I used one of the Rivers Edge chèvres, Up In Smoke, which is a fresh chèvre wrapped in maple leaves, spritzed with bourbon, and then lightly smoked. The flavor is lush and evocative.

I’m not sure what made me include potatoes in this salad, other that they look so appealing this time of year, freshly dug, in the farmers markets. Or maybe it was to ensure that MauiJim wouldn’t be raiding the frig an hour after eating dinner.

Regardless, the combination of roasted potatoes, butternut squash, and sweet pimiento pepper is sensational with fresh rosemary, salad greens, Candied Spiced Walnuts or Pecans  and Honey Mustard Vinaigrette. It’s almost a bonus that the salad is also beautiful.

Roasted Fall Vegetable Salad with Warm Goat Cheese & Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

One of my new favorites, this fall salad has a lot going for it: contrasting flavors, textures, and temperatures; an array of fall colors; and dynamite taste.

Vegetables
1 pound small Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed, and cut into 4-8 wedges, depending on size of potatoes
¼ butternut squash, seeded, peeled and cut into wedges about the same size as the potatoes
1 sweet pimento pepper or red bell pepper, cored, seeded, ribbed, and cut into wedges about the same size as the potatoes
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
1 clove garlic, peeled, and minced or pressed
2 tablespoons cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette (below)

Goat Cheese
two 1-inch thick slices of fresh, mild goat cheese from a 2-inch diameter log
2 tablespoon all purpose flour
2 tablespoons fine dry bread crumbs or panko
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil

Salad
2 large handfuls of baby salad greens

Garnish
½ cup Candied Spiced Walnuts or Pecans, coarsely chopped
2 small sprigs of fresh rosemary

1. To prepare the vegetables for roasting, in a large bowl toss together the potatoes, squash, pepper, rosemary, garlic, oil, salt, and pepper.
2. Arrange vegetables evenly on an edged baking sheet. They should not be overlapping.
3. Roast at 350° for about 15-20 minutes, until vegetables are tender and beginning to caramelize. Remove from the oven and let cool. This step can be completed a few hours ahead, in which case refrigerate the vegetables and bring back to room temperature before serving.
4. Prepare the vinaigrette (below) and refrigerate.
5. To prepare the goat cheese, in a small bowl, whisk together the flour, bread crumbs, salt.
6. Just before serving, coat each slice of goat cheese in the flour mixture. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a small skillet and sauté the goat cheese rounds for about 2 minutes on each side, or until nicely browned and warmed through.
7. While the goat cheese rounds are cooking, in a large mixing bowl, toss the salad greens with enough of the vinaigrette to coat each leaf. (You will have vinaigrette left over for a couple more salads later.)
8. Remove the goat cheese rounds from the sauté pan and pat lightly with paper towels to remove any excess oil.
9. Arrange the warm goat cheese in the middle of 2 large pasta plates, and then arrange the dressed greens around them.
10. Quickly toss the vegetables with a little of the vinaigrette and tuck them into the greens in each of the salads.
11. Top each salad with Candied Spiced Walnuts or Pecans, freshly ground black pepper, and a sprig of fresh rosemary.
12. Serve immediately.

Makes 2 dinner-size salads.

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

I almost always have this lovely vinaigrette on hand in the fall. It complements fall’s abundance of apples, pears, winter squash, toasted nuts, and baby greens and winter greens alike. For an even more pronounced apple flavor, use apple syrup rather than honey. Make a double batch if you like. It keeps for days in the frig.

9 tablespoons cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons natural process apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons honey or Lopez Island Farm Apple Syrup
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, peeled, and minced or pressed
½ teaspoon fine sea salt

1. In a small bowl or glass measuring cup, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, honey, mustard, garlic and salt until emulsified.
2. Taste and balance sweetness (honey), acidity (vinegar), and salt.
3. Pour vinaigrette into a squeeze bottle, cap, and refrigerate.  

Makes about 1 cup.

I talked about my LOVE for gazpacho earlier this summer in the Spicy Cucumber Gazpacho post. In a moment of wild gazpacho abandon, I promised to share at least six of my favorite gazpacho recipes with you this summer. Whatever was I thinking? It’s August already and this is only number two. Mea culpa! Mea culpa!

Nevertheless, this particular gazpacho is so wonderful, I hope you will forgive me for not delivering the others. Roasted red bell peppers are one of the most gorgeous flavors in the world. They are both sweet and savory, silky and toothsome, subtle and bold. I buy them by the half dozen every week and dream up ways to use them.

This is one of the simplest ways I know. It’s incredibly refreshing and surprisingly satisfying on a hot summer evening. A loaf of crackly bread and a couple of excellent cheeses will make a simple and memorable meal. Throw in a lovely dessert (Grilled Peaches with Basil Crème Fraîche?), and you’re a rock star.

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Gazpacho

A sweet, sassy, smoky variation on the more traditional tomato gazpacho, this cold, spicy soup makes an excellent first course for warm summer evenings. The combination of smoked hot paprika and orange really takes the flavors here into the magic zone.

6 red bell peppers, roasted, cored, seeded, deribbed and chopped (3 cups chopped, roasted, peeled red bell peppers) (1½ pounds roasted)

5 ounces super-sweet grape tomatoes

1/4 red onion, peeled, and rough chopped

1-2 serrano chili peppers, halved lengthwise, cored, seeded, and deribbed (use disposable gloves!)

2 cloves peeled garlic

¾ cup chicken or vegetable stock

¼ fresh orange juice

¼ cup olive oil

2 tablespoons finely grated orange zest

2 tablespoons excellent quality Sherry vinegar

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons smoked hot paprika

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

Garnish

1 cup, seeded, juiced, diced yellow tomato (1 tomato)

1/2 cup finely slivered green onions, green part only (2 green onions)

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (or parsley if preferred)

2 teaspoons coarsely grated lemon peel

1. To the jar of a blender, add the red bell peppers, tomatoes, red onion, serrano chiles, and garlic. Cover and liquefy.
2. Add the stock, orange juice, olive oil, orange zest, Sherry vinegar, lemon juice, paprika, salt, and pepper. Cover and liquefy.
3. Taste for a perfect balance between sweetness, acidity, salt, and depth of flavor. Adjust as necessary.
4. Add a little more stock if necessary to achieve a good soup texture (not too thick, not too thin).
5. Remove soup to a covered container and chill for at least 4 hours.
6. To serve, ladle soup into each of 4-6 clear glass cups or bowls, and garnish each with a small amount of yellow tomato, green onion, cilantro, and grated lemon peel.

Serves 4-6.