Piquillo pepper salad, a simple and flavorful option. Piquillo peppers are found in cans or in glass jars, since it is difficult to find them fresh to make them at home, which is why they are usually bought canned. The best ones are those made over firewood, although all of them are suitable for this recipe. Although they are very good as canned, they can be enriched much more to prepare a salad with them.
Piquillo peppers are widely used in Basque gastronomy, as they are used to prepare tapas or to accompany anchovies, on toast, with fish or meat. They can be eaten hot or cold. To make this piquillo pepper salad, we will confit them to make them better and we will give them a little more flavor by adding some garlic and chilli for those who want a little spice. They can also be caramelized by adding a couple of teaspoons of sugar when they are candied. You can prepare 2-3 jars of peppers and keep them in a glass container in the fridge for several days. In any case, stay with us to discover all our secrets and learn how to make a delicious piquillo pepper salad.
Ingredients to make piquillo pepper salad:
- 1 jar of piquillo peppers
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 chilli or cayenne
- 1 splash of olive oil
- 1 handful of olives
- 1 can of natural tuna
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 pinch of pepper
How to make Piquillo Pepper Salad:
Remove the peppers from the pot and keep the liquid. Cut the garlic into slices and cut the cayenne pepper in half or leave it whole, keeping in mind that when cut it will sting more. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat with a good splash of olive oil. When hot, add the minced garlic and cayenne pepper and let them brown slightly, being very careful not to burn them.
Before the garlic takes on a lot of color, add the piquillo peppers well spread out so they don’t overlap each other. Let them cook for a couple of minutes on each side, add the broth from the pot and cook for 5 minutes all together so that the peppers take on the flavor of the garlic and the cayenne or chilli pepper. Put a little salt and pepper to taste.
Once they are cooked, turn off the heat, transfer them to a glass container with all the broth and garlic, so they will keep for several days in the fridge and you can prepare different salads.
At the time of serving, you can make your piquillo pepper salad with olives, tuna natural or in oil, grilled tuna belly if you do not want to use canned tuna, tomato, anchovies, slices of hard- boiled egg, crab sticks (surimi) and, of course, a little broth from the cooking of the peppers. You will have a delicious and perfect dish for any occasion. Also, since you will still have more peppers in the fridge, you can experiment and make different salads. For example, with pasta, with rice, with bonito, with cod…
