Spain – Tapas: Potatoes and Roasted Red Peppers

I am adapting my cooking here to Spanish tapas style. We are touring and exploring so there is not a lot of time to spend in the kitchen but I love trying to reproduce foods we have eaten out or that I think would be nice to serve as tapas. This potatoes and roasted peppers is one such dish.

As with most tapas you can serve it as part of a selection of small plates or in larger raciones portion as they do here when they make a meal out of tapas. I noticed that every tapas menu has potatoes as an option, most often as sautéed potatoes with spicy tomato sauce with or without mayonnaise.  Roasted peppers are also a tapas dish here and I have seen them beautifully served with a drizzle of green Andalucian olive oil, either mild or slightly pungent. It will be difficult to have anything but the best olive oil when I get back. My standard for “best” has certainly changed after tasting the fresh and flavourful olive oils they have here.

Roasted peppers are one of the items I keep regularly in the fridge, at home and also here. They are versatile and combine well with other foods, or nice on their own piled on a grilled slice of bread. This time I added them to sauteed potatoes to make this tapa plate that disappeared in no time. Part of my problem with tapas is that I have a hard time cooking small quantities of anything. This habit is still with me after cooking for our family of 5 all these years. I am trying though. Adjust the quantities as you need.

---

 

Directions:

---

Olive oil

10 small potatoes, halved, or about 3-4 cups of potatoes, peeled and cut into medium pieces.

2 red peppers

2 large garlic cloves, sliced thinly

Coarse maldon salt

---

Directions:

---

Peel the potatoes and cut in half or pieces.

Heat up oil in a large skillet that can hold the potatoes in one layer.

Add the potatoes and cook on medium heat until cooked through and golden.

Towards the end add the garlic slices and adjust the heat as necessary to avoid burning the garlic.

Roast the peppers over a gas flame or under the broiler until their skin is charred, blackened and blistered.

Leave covered for a few minutes until cool enough to handle.

Peel off the charred skin and cu the peppers into strips, discarding pith and seeds.

Add the roasted pepper to the potatoes in the skillet and warm up over medium heat.

Sprinkle with parsley if you wish, add salt and pepper and serve warm.

---