A few weeks ago I mentioned that we had stocked up on some of our favorite foods in Spain, one of them being whole pimientos.
Pimientos are heart-shaped red peppers that are very popular all over Spain: sliced and added to salads or bocadillos (sandwiches) or just eaten as a tapa or stuffed – our personal favorite.
My mother always had a tiny jar of chopped pimientos in the fridge which she doled out sparingly to add color to other dishes, liked deviled eggs or potato salad.
And, of course, we are all familiar with the pimiento-stuffed green olives.
To be honest, I didn’t know the pimiento actually had flavor until we moved to Andorra. I thought it was just to add color. (My mother’s paprika was tasteless, as well…. It might have something to do with age. The age of the products; not my mother.)
If you can’t get whole pimientos use whole roasted red peppers.
If you don’t like goat cheese use another soft cheese – even cream cheese would work.
To digress a moment – any cream cheese is called ‘Philadelphia’ here…. not Philadelphia Cream Cheese, just ‘Philadelphia’.
Pimientos Stuffed with Ham and Goat Cheese
Total time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 whole pimientos
- 4oz (120gr) soft goat cheese
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 slices Prosciutto, Serrano, Bayonne or other dry-cured ham, chopped
- Tomato Sauce:
- 8oz (240ml) tomato sauce
- 2 shallots, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1/2 tsp basil
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
Instructions:
- Combine the ham, garlic powder and goat cheese.
- Stuff the pimientos with the mixture and put in a baking dish just large enough to hold them.
- Bake in a 400F (200C) for 15 minutes.
- Tomato Sauce:
- Heat oil in small sauce pan over medium heat.
- Add shallots, garlic and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil over medium heat.
- Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Put in blender and purée until smooth.
- To serve:
- Spoon some tomato sauce on two small plates, top with a Pepper and serve.
We expanded the potager.
I may have mentioned that the bunnies have taken over my herb garden….
And I’ve lost the will to fight them.
Plus, having everything in one garden might make it all easier for watering, fertilizing, etc.
And mon mari can roto-till it….
We just extended it by about 6 feet, but we managed to harvest a lot of rocks.
Some of them needed to be attacked with the pickax
Some needed to be attacked with the drill and chisel to break apart first.
Not a bad harvest from a 6 x 12 foot area of what, we assumed, was grass and dirt.
I started hoeing yesterday and have added considerably to this pile.
Planting vegetables is hard work around here.
Love the sound of this recipe, goat cheese is lovely!
Since I’ve dug in dirt in many places, I find your harvest of stones tremendous but am not surprised. Dirt is very concealing.
And it’s amazing that he can roto-till, I can hoe, then hoe again and still find rocks we didn’t know about! Dirt is very concealing….
I feel your pain re all the stones in the veggie garden. I’m always telling the gardeners at Chenonceau how envious I am of their nice sandy loam that has been cultivated for 500 years. I’ve got a paddock on a limestone-clay slope. Not the same.
I’ve not noticed ‘Philadelphia’ being universal for cream cheese. ‘Fromage à tartiner’ would be just as common here in the Touraine I reckon. But then, everyone knows that we in the Touraine are the only ones who speak proper French 🙂
Maybe they’re saying it for the Yank lol. Philadelphia is actually easier to find then the French Fromage – and yes, could be a regional thing. I had nice dirt in my potager in the Vendee – which had been a potager for a 100 years or so. Here it’s like an archeological site – I never know what I’m going to find
Wow that is a rock harvest…not just pebbles !!!!
If one is going to harvest rocks….