Bicol Express

This is hardly the sort of dish that a winter climate would inspire, but as long as greenhouses exist, I can still enjoy the taste of this quick and easy recipe of sweet green peppers with coconut milk. I actually tasted Bicol Express for the first time in Milan of all places (from a hot pink food truck parked in front of the Philippine embassy). It was delicious on hot rice, but much too heavy with pork and pork fat. I came up with a lighter recipe that goes easy on the pork fat, but measured everything by "eye" as shown in this photo.

This dish comes together fast; the only time-consuming part is topping off and removing the seeds and white membrane within the peppers. Also, if you don't like hot hot, use a less fiery pepper than a habanero or use none at all.

Make a slit in the habanero (this will allow some of that spicy heat to blend into the dish). Saute pork with the garlic, onion, and ginger in a small amount of vegetable oil. When it's no longer pink, add a can of coconut milk, the cleaned peppers, the habanero and bagoong. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until green peppers are soft and limp. Season to taste with salt.

Pepper pickin' in Piemonte

No, it's not like we went to a pick-your-own bell pepper farm, but seeing that we stopped at a couple of veggie stands in Carmagnola, that's almost as good as what Peter got himself into.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked?

Located in the eastern region of Piemonte, Carmagnola is the city of peppers and holds a tremendously popular fair in September of each year. The 4 primary peperoni are: quadrato (so-named for to its squared shape), corno di bue (ox horn), tumaticot and trottola. We haven't yet been able to time it right in order to attend this event, but it's possible to buy loads of peppers at any of the roadside stands located on the outskirts of the city.

We picked up about 10 pounds total with these corno di bue and tumaticot peppers.

The tumaticot has thick sides, is rather wide and squat, and aren't very crisp, but they hold up well when stuffed and baked. They actually take less time to bake (or also cooked in a covered skillet) because the filling is spread out in the wider cavity of the pepper. I just cut off the top third and save tops to use in something else.

At 2,50€/kilo they're not exactly cheap, but they certainly beat the stuff that I get at big chain supermarkets.