Peperonata Piemontese — Sweet Pepper Stew

Piedmont — the Asti and Cuneo provinces are the centres of Corno di Bue pepper cultivation. The peperonata preparation is documented in Piedmontese summer cooking from at least the 19th century.

Piedmont produces some of the finest sweet peppers in Italy — the Corno di Bue (bull's horn) peppers of the Asti area, thick-walled, sweet, and bright red, roasted or braised into the definitive peperonata: a long, slow stew of peppers, onion, tomato, and olive oil that reduces over an hour into a dense, sweet, slightly jammy preparation that is simultaneously a condiment, a side dish, and a sauce for meat. The Piedmontese peperonata is notably slower and denser than southern versions — the peppers are cooked until they nearly dissolve. It is one of the fundamental preparations of the Piedmontese summer table.

Piedmontese peperonata at its correct long-cooked consistency is almost a jam — the sweet peppers, reduced to a dense, orange-red stew, have a concentrated sweetness modulated by the slight acid of the vinegar. The onion has dissolved; the tomato is present but not dominant; the olive oil binds everything. It tastes of late summer preserved in a pan.