Looking for a quick, easy sauce using gorgeous end-of-summer peppers and tomatoes?
Don’t forget about Peperonata!
We had an abundance of beautiful organic sweet mini peppers from my favorite organic farmer (Daniel Price, owner of Freedom Farm in Old Fort, NC) and I wanted to find a fresh way of using them with Gardein Chick’n Scallopini.
Peperonata is usually a slow-cooked Italian stew of peppers, onions, and tomatoes that is used as a condiment for meat, chicken, or fish – or perhaps a light sauce for pasta.
I wanted this to be one of my 30 minute Easy Weeknight Meals, so I ditched the slow-cooked approach. I also didn’t want to use the large sweet bell peppers (the default ingredient in most recipes) and thought the organic sweet mini peppers would be quicker and easier to prep (they absolutely were). Once you cut off the tops of the mini peppers, it’s a snap to slice them in half, cut away the very small amount of seeds and membrane inside, and slice them into 1/4″ strips. I prepped 2 cups of mini peppers in 5 minutes flat.
Although you could certainly opt for a single color, I thought that the blend of red, yellow, and orange sliced mini peppers was lovely!
If you don’t have access to mini sweet peppers from a local organic farm, I’ve had good luck with several other brands of organic mini sweet peppers: Pero Family Farms and Melissa’s Produce are widely available in Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, Publix, and even Target!
And why am I recommending using organic sweet mini peppers? Because peppers are one of the Dirty Dozen!
To save on prep time, I used Muir Glen Organic Diced Tomatoes, but I could have just as easily diced up some organic cherry tomatoes from the Charlotte Regional Farmer’s Market. The recipe is written so that you can use either, but (true confession) I knew I would have a hard time making my self-imposed 30 minute deadline if I spent the additional time chopping fresh tomatoes!
And since my chicken analogue was already gluten-free, I used King Arthur Gluten-Free Flour to dredge the Gardein Chick’n Scallopini before lightly sautéing them for two minutes on each side.
30 minutes – start to finish. Now, that’s what I call a quick, easy, and delicious weeknight meal!
- 1 medium Vidalia onion, sliced
- 2 cups slivered red, yellow and orange sweet mini peppers (no more than ¼” thick)
- Sea salt
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
- ½ - 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 14 ounce can diced organic tomatoes, drained with ¼ cup of the juice reserved (or 1½ cups diced organic cherry tomatoes plus 2-3 tablespoons of organic tomato juice)
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 1 package Gardein Chick’n Scallopini
- ⅓ cup King Arthur Gluten-Free Flour
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
- 1-2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
- Heat a large skillet and add the olive oil. Sauté the onions, sliced mini peppers, and a little sea salt over medium high heat for about 6-7 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and add the sliced garlic and hot pepper flakes and cook for another 5 minutes. At this point, the onions and peppers should be softened and starting to brown.
- Stir in the tomatoes, the juice, and the rosemary sprigs. Turn the heat to medium low and cover the skillet. Cook for about 10-15 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated.
- While the peppers, onion, and tomatoes are cooking, put the flour into a shallow bowl and add salt and pepper to season the flour. Dredge each of the four frozen cutlets on both sides in the seasoned flour mixture while you heat the additional olive oil in another skillet.
- Sauté the flour-dredged cutlets over medium-high heat, 2 minutes per side. Put the cooked cutlets on a plate or serving dish while you finish the peperonata.
- Uncover the skillet. The peppers should look moist and juicy, but most of the liquid should be evaporated. Stir in the red wine vinegar and parsley. Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding a bit more salt and pepper if needed.
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[Note to my subscribers: Please accept my sincere apologies for the link to the partial post you may have received yesterday. I was having some website issues and “publish” was accidentally triggered before I was finished writing. Mea culpa!]
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