Peter Piper

You all know what he did, athough I can't figure out how the peppers got pickled before he picked them. Maybe there was vodka in the watering can?

In any event, late summer is the time to enjoy peppers. These guys need a long time on the plant, and you really only begin to see nice sized ones in August. They'll be around for about two months, too.

When I was young, we ate peppers a lot. We had them fried with eggs , or with stewing veal, or in sauce, with sausage and meatballs. I think this was one of the few times that we ate a lot of something because Nana liked peppers. She would never admit it, but I know that this is one of the few foods where she got extremely upset if people didn't eat them. We almost always had them green, which is I think how they basically came.

In case you don't know this, and I think just about everyone does, green peppers are unripe peppers. Every green pepper you see would, if left on the plant, eventually turn red, or yellow or orange, or whatever shade that variety ripens to. This goes for hot and sweet peppers. You can sometimes find red jalapenos, for example, and sometimes if you leave them around long enough, and the conditions are right, they will ripen for you. I've had that happen, and it's kind of neat to have the red ones mixed in with the green ones, in a spicy dish.

I really enjoy the way you can use peppers in a lot of things. They are almost impossible to cook badly. They're good crispy, they're even better (in my view), soft and cooked for a long time, and they're good raw. Some people do have problems with raw green ones, I think because of the types of fibers in them.

Now, for the bad news. In terms of nutrition, these aren't power houses . You can get some vitamin A and C from the ripe ones, but that's about it. They are almost completely water, which makes them a good dieting tool. You should enjoy them because they taste good.

And enjoy them now. During the winter, you can get what are called "holland peppers," I guess because they are grown in the Netherlands. They are certainly beautiful. Big , enormous, brightly colored guys, that are extremely crisp . And they taste like nothing. the sun kissed ones, however, are wonderful.

You can pretty much substitute red/yellow/orange peppers, one for the other, in any dish. Green and colored peppers, however, are not exchangeable. I would characterize the taste of green peppers as "brash" or "metallic." There are places for that. All of the dishes Nana made with them were wonderful. As a base combined with onions and garic and things like that, they are superb. But today, I want to introduce you to a pasta sauce, by way of Marcella Hazan, that uses peppers as its key ingredient.

This is one of the first recipes I ever made after I moved into my first apartment. I probably DID use Holland peppers, because in the 80s, that's what we had. Marcella also has you do certain things that I don't do anymore, because I only use the ripe, local ones, and it doesn't seem necessary. Do it if you want to try it, but I don't think you need to.

You'll need six good sized bell peppers. Marcella recommends 3 red and 3 yellow. At the time she wrote her book, the orange ones weren't availabe, but you could use those too, if you like. You'll also need a few tablespoons of olive oil, and an equal amount of butter, and some salt. Also, you'll want a big handful of basil leaves.

Marcella recommends using a swivel peeler to peel the raw peppers before you cook them. I think she was working with much tougher peppers than I can get, because I don't really see a need to peel them, and I've done it both ways. Instead , what I do is cut away the top of the pepper with one horizontal cut, and then make about 1/3 inch vertical cuts, to cut down all six of the peppers. Once that's done, add the oil and butter and heat it at a fair heat, until the butter melts. When that happens, add the peppers, and put in a BIG pinch of salt. Stir the peppers in the fat, and then leave them alone. You'll see them begin to soften, and the sound in your post wil begin to change to a sizzle. At that point, cover your pot, lower the heat, and cook them for another ten minutes. At five minutes, stir them. After ten minutes, stir in the basil leaves, and you're done.

Or are you? As this is, you can and should toss it into a shaped pasta, and add lots of grated cheese to it. Or, put it alongside meat, like sausages. You might also want to use it to top your pizza, and I'm all in favor of that. Or, you could add your sausages or meatballs to them, and perhaps add some tomato sauce.

If you cook up some tomatoes and onions, and add the peppers to this, you get what I know as pepperonata, a dish I could eat every day. it's very close to what Nana ate as often as she could.

It has been said that I am in fact becoming Nana. Maybe so. Worst things could happen.

Now go and eat your peppers.