The summer garden has hit its stride, with tomatoes reddening on the vine and peppers weighing down their plants. As the harvest transitions from handfuls to pounds at a time, I grill and freeze the ripe produce to use all winter on its own or in other recipes.
Sweet peppers are easy to freeze because they don’t need to be blanched. Simply remove the stems and seeds and freeze them in halves, rings or chopped. I freeze small pieces on trays and then transfer them to freezer-safe bags so that they stay loose enough to scoop out by the cupful and pour, still frozen, into a sauté pan.
Grilling adds an extra but flavor-intensifying step. The direct-flame heat loosens the bitter translucent skins so that you can peel them away, leaving the sweet flesh behind. If I plan to freeze pepper pieces, I set the halved and deseeded peppers on a hot grill for only three minutes per side so that they remain fairly firm.
Grill the peppers for up to 15 minutes, and the skins will blister and blacken enough to be peeled completely away. The remaining flesh is closer to the softness of pricey store-bought jars of roasted red peppers – and ideal for pureeing into a sauce.
I freeze sweet pepper sauce in small cubes so that I can defrost just enough to spread over Sourdough Pizza Dough. I also toss it with pasta or new potatoes and spoon dollops on grilled fish. Red bell peppers have the brightest color, and their meaty flesh releases smoky juice worth collecting to mix into the sauce. Place the peppers in a bowl as you peel them, and the juice will pool at the bottom. Use smoked paprika for extra mild flavor, or mix in Home-Smoked Chili Peppers for a little spiciness.
Grilled Sweet Pepper Sauce
Makes about 3-1/2 cups
2-1/2 pounds red bell peppers, grilled and peeled
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons fresh oregano
1 tablespoon fresh basil
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Up to 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon smoked paprika or minced home-smoked chili peppers
Add the peppers to a food processor, along with any liquid they’ve released after grilling, and process briefly; you should have about 3 cups. Add the rosemary, oregano, basil, sugar, salt and pepper. Process until the sauce is smooth but thick.
Pour the sauce into a medium bowl. Thin it to your desired thickness by stirring in 2 to 4 tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon at a time. Stir in the paprika or chilies, adjusting the flavorings to taste. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving or freezing.
To freeze, spoon the puree into two ice trays; pour a thin film of olive oil over each cube. Freeze overnight, until the contents are solid, and then transfer the individual cubes to a labeled zip-close freezer bag and return it to the freezer.
Julie Laing is a Bigfork-based cookbook author and food blogger at TwiceAsTasty.com.