Peppers with tuna sauce

Recipe by
Luisa Orizio

Peppers with Tuna Sauce — peperoni tonnati — takes the logic of vitello tonnato and swaps the veal for oven-roasted pepper fillets. That substitution isn't incidental; it's the whole point. The same creamy salsa tonnata lands against something lighter and brighter, with the natural sweetness the peppers develop in the oven doing the work the meat would have done. It's a summer appetizer in the clearest sense: easy to pull together, genuinely flavorful, and exactly the kind of thing you want to open an outdoor lunch or dinner without making a production of it.

The sauce comes together quickly from fresh ingredients — no long prep, no slow simmer — and the peppers roast ahead without complaint, which means the dish is mostly done before your guests arrive. At room temperature or cold, the finished plate holds well: colorful, creamy, and better for having had a little time to settle. That make-ahead quality isn't a workaround; the source calls it out as one of the dish's real advantages. Serve it as a first course on a warm evening and it earns its place at the table without asking much of you in return.

You might also like:

• Vitello tonnato
• Tuna Sauce
• Roasted Pepper Fillets with Anchovies and Flavors
• Bell Pepper Rolls with Goat Cheese Heart
• Baked Bell Pepper Rolls