Sweet-and-Sour Peppers au Gratin

Name: Sweet-and-Sour Peppers au Gratin
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: Red peppers 1.3 lbs; Garlic 1 clove; Extra virgin olive oil 1 ½ tbsp; Fine salt to taste; White wine vinegar 2 tbsp; Pine nuts 2 ½ tbsp; Raisins 1.2 oz; Bread 3.5 oz; Parsley to taste; Bread 2 slices

Difficulty: Easy
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Serving: 4
Cost: Low

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PRESENTATION

Recipe by
Gessica Runcio

Sweet-and-Sour Peppers au Gratin layers two distinct textures and a genuinely balanced flavor into something peppers rarely get credit for delivering. Raisins and pine nuts carry the agrodolce—that Mediterranean push and pull between sweetness and acidity—while a crunchy topping of fresh bread, garlic, and parsley seals everything under a golden crust. The result is a side dish that feels both simple and full of character, with the sweet, faintly fruity depth of the peppers anchoring every bite.

The fresh-bread gratin is what separates these baked peppers au gratin from a standard sweet-sour preparation. Dried breadcrumbs compact and dull; pane fresco stays open and aromatic, browning into a crust that contrasts the soft, flavor-saturated peppers beneath it. That textural balance, along with the versatility of the agrodolce base, makes these peppers equally at home alongside meat, fish, or cheese.

INGREDIENTS

Red peppers 1.3 lbs (600 g)

Garlic 1 clove

Extra virgin olive oil 1 ½ tbsp (20 g)

Fine salt to taste

White wine vinegar 2 tbsp (30 g)

Pine nuts 2 ½ tbsp (20 g)

Raisins 1.2 oz (35 g)

Bread 3.5 oz (100 g)

Parsley to taste

To serve: Bread 2 slices

Preparation

How to prepare Sweet-and-Sour Peppers au Gratin

To prepare the sweet-and-sour peppers au gratin, soak the raisins in a little water with half the amount of the vinegar 1. Separately, pour the remaining 1 tbsp of vinegar into the sugar 2 and mix 3.

Cut the peppers in half 4, remove the stems and internal seeds, then cut them into strips 5 and halve those strips 6.

Heat the oil in a pan 7, add the peppers 8 and season with salt 9.

When they begin to soften, pour in the vinegar-and-sugar mixture 10 and cook for about 20 minutes in total or until they become tender. In the meantime, place the fresh bread torn into pieces 11 and the parsley 12 in a food processor.

Add the garlic with the germ removed 13 and blend everything to obtain a uniform breadcrumb mixture 14. Toward the end of cooking, add the pine nuts 15.

Also add the soaked and drained raisins 16, then finish with the breadcrumb mixture 17. Let the breadcrumbs brown and gratinate in the pan for a few minutes. Stir everything to combine 18.