Rather an unexpected mix this – peppers with apple – but it’s fresh and a bit festive.

Goes especially well with Modigliani White Fish Fillets with Mussels and Saffron.

Recipe for peppers stuffed with apple and mascarpone

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 orange peppers
• 2 tsp anchovy paste
• 20 pitted black olives and roughly chopped
• 4 tbsp capers
• 4 tsp dried oregano
• 2 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped with 1 tsp smoked salt
• 40g/⅔ cup breadcrumbs (not Panko, from a stale white loaf)
• 250g/9 oz/1 cup mascarpone
• 1 apple
• 4 tbsps chopped fresh chives
• Freshly ground pepper
• 2 tbsp walnut oil
• 2 tbsps grated parmesan

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC.
2. Brush a roasting tin with olive oil.
3. Cut the pepper in half, and deseed them. Brush them also with olive oil, put on the tin and put in the oven for about half an hour.
4. Core and slice the apple and mix with the mascarpone, the breadcrumbs, the garlic and salt, the oregano, the capers, the black olives and the anchovy paste.
5. Turn the oven up to 210ºC.
6. Stuff the peppers with the apple and mascarpone mixture. Sprinkle over the parmesan. Return to the oven for another ten minutes (watch it…it may not need that long).
7. Serve, with a few chives snipped over, a generous grinding of pepper, and a drizzle of walnut oil.