Sweet green pepper
Sweet green pepper adds a fresh vegetal note to brodetto alla vastese. Choose a fresh, non-hot pepper, preferably long and slender, and cut it before building the tomato base.
- Purchase form
- Fresh sweet green pepper.
- For the brodetto
- Long, slender fruit, cleaned and sliced.
- Flavor choice
- Sweet pepper rather than hot chili.
Clean before slicing
Rinse the pepper, remove the stalk and open it to remove the seeds and pale internal ribs. Cut it into even strips or slices. Add it with the tomato base so it can soften before the more delicate fish finishes cooking. Weigh the cleaned amount called for in the recipe.
Green pepper in the fish pan
In brodetto alla vastese, pepper joins tomato and aromatics beneath the mixed fish. A long, slender pepper gives slices that sit comfortably in the shallow cooking base. Its role is vegetable flavor, while the fish supplies the body of the dish. Green sweet peppers come in more than one shape and variety. Friggitelli are one familiar slender type, often used green in Italian cooking, but the color alone does not identify a cultivar or establish how hot a pepper will be.
A vegetable note around the fish
Leave the softened pepper in the sauce and serve it with the fish and its tomato juices. Slices should be easy to lift with a spoon, without requiring the fish to be stirred or broken apart.
Ask for a sweet pepper
Choose firm fruit with intact skin and no soft or spoiled patches. Ask explicitly for a sweet green pepper; a slender green chili can look similar. For the Vastese preparation, look for the long, thin form rather than choosing by a protected regional name.
Keep whole until preparing
Keep fresh peppers refrigerated and wash and cut them when preparing the dish. Cover any unused cut pepper and keep it refrigerated. Follow the pack’s directions if buying a prepared fresh product.
