I recently discovered today’s recipe in the short trip we took to the Basque Country with my parents while they were here on holidays. We visited some locations both in the Spanish and the French sides and Piperrada (or Piperade in French) is cooked all over. It is basically a pepper and tomatoes stir fry, from the family of Spanish Pisto, Catalan Samfaina and French Ratatouille but with peppers as the base vegetable.
In spite of how wonderful and delicious Mediterranean cuisine is, is fair to point out that some of the best food of Spain is produced and created in the Basque Country within the less known but also fabulous Atlantic Diet. In fact, along with Catalonia, Basque Country concentrates the majority of chefs and restaurants holding Michelin stars. But there’s no need to visit a Michelin star restaurant to eat delicious food, it is served everywhere, and we indeed enjoy it!
Once in the French side, we re-visited a little restaurant in Bayonne in which we had eaten really well the first time: Auberge du Petite Bayonne; everything was certainly as good as we recall. If you happen to go, just remember to make a reservation because it is usually crowded, since not only the food, but the prices are very attractive and the staff is very friendly!
I took some pictures of the menu we had consisting of: Squid cassolette and Piperade (today’s recipe) with eggs and Bayonne ham (designation of origin, totally worth trying) as an entrée; lamb txilindrón (tomato and pepper sauce typical from Basque Country) and duck tournedos with mushroom sauce (yummy!) as a main dish. Finally, we had the marquise au chocolat as a dessert that was to die for! There is also a picture of how great an ordinary breakfast can be in a French cafeteria (that is, of course, if you enjoy croissants and bread with salted butter!).
Click to view slideshow.Piperrada
- Servings: 2
- Time: 20 minutes
- Difficulty: easy
Ingredients
- a dash of olive oil
- 1 onion, finally chopped
- 1 garlic clove, pressed
- 1 red pepper cut into strips
- 1 green pepper cut into strips
- 1 tin of whole tomatoes + their juice, cubed (of course you can use fresh peeled tomatoes!)
- salt and white pepper to taste
- 2 eggs (skip these for a vegan option)
Preparation
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and sauté over medium heat the onion and the garlic until translucent.
- Add the peppers and stir fry for some minutes
- Stir in the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and simmer till the peppers have soften and the juice reduced.
- Break the eggs into the pan and stir until they have curdled.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
Filed under: French, Restaurant Reviews, Spanish Tagged: cheap and cheerful, clean eating, green pepper, healthy food, high fiber, low calorie, low carb, low fat, quick and easy, red pepper, tomatoes, vegan option, vegetarian, whole food
