Growing the perfect pepper

Peter Piper may have picked a peck of pickled peppers, but Pete Aiello prefers his in their glorious prepickled state.

The owner and general manager of Gilroy, Calif.'s Uesugi Farms likes his glossy green and red peppers stuffed, sliced into salads or basted with olive oil and tossed on a grill. And he should know.

We may think of California as the land of artichokes, avocados and strawberries, but the state also leads the nation in bell pepper production, with nearly 9 million cubic tons. That's a lot of stuffed peppers - and this is peak season for farmers such as Aiello, whose acreage stretches from Bakersfield to Brentwood.

Growing the "perfect pepper," says Aiello, is a lot like raising a large family. It's a matter of supplying plenty of "elbow grease and tender loving care" every single day. But the work starts paying off when the plant reaches full size, because you can harvest emerald green peppers from the same plant for the next five months - or let them linger on the shrub until the sun turns them a sweet, rosy red.

The bell-shaped pepper adds bright color and flavor to all kinds of cuisines, from savory Persian and Mediterranean dishes to fiery South American fare. It's no wonder that they pop up in virtually every cookbook, including a slew of just-published tomes.

So, we've taken a page of inspiration from four of the newest cookbooks, which give California's most mellow pepper its time in the sun.

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You can hide those glorious bells in fajitas or drown them in chili, but why not give them a starring role at the dinner table, says Robert Irvine, who hosts Food Network's "Dinner: Impossible" - a reality show that sends its chef scrambling to prepare meals in such unlikely venues as an aircraft carrier and an ice hotel. In his newest cookbook, "Impossible to Easy" (William Morrow, $29.99, 294 pp.), Irvine suggests tossing diced bell and serrano peppers with tequila-simmered shrimp and linguine for a "playful dish" that's as easy as it is beautiful.

Annie Bell, author of the new "Gorgeous Vegetables" (Kyle Books, $19.95, 192 pp.), layers roasted red peppers with tomatoes, pesto and goat cheese for a gratin that tastes equally good hot, cold or at room temperature. Not a chevre devotee? Use mozzarella instead.

Roasted vegetables, she writes, are "one of the great basics of the kitchen," equally at home on the white tablecloth-draped dinner table, or tucked into a sandwich. And a little leftover gratin would be marvelous on ciabatta bread.

Italian cooking guru Lidia Bastianich goes old school in her "Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy" (Alfred A. Knopf, $35, 414 pp.), and stuffs hers with dried porcini, breadcrumbs and Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Bastinich uses the same mixture to stuff medium zucchini, small tomatoes and sweet Vidalia onions, then serves them on a large platter, family-style. Best of all, she says, they can be served piping hot or at room temperature, as an hors d'oeuvre, a side dish or the main event. They make a great breakfast treat, too, topped with a poached or fried egg.

And San Francisco food writer Fran Gage, author of "The New American Olive Oil" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $29.95, 224 pp.), uses red peppers in Spanish romescu sauce, Persian muhammara and that classic French picnic sandwich, Pan Bagnat. The latter is best eaten on a beach in Nice, she says, so you can rinse your hands in the Mediterranean Sea between bites. But then, that's probably true of most things.

ROASTE

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