Adriana's Symi Recipes

This extremely easy recipe is always a taverna favourite and I am putting this up by special request from some regular visitors who were unable to come to Symi this September due to the collapse of Kosmar. Like so many good things, it only requires three ingredients and the sum is greater than the parts.

The first ingredient is, obviously, the peppers themselves. Florina peppers are long red slipper-shaped sweet peppers from the region of Florina up in northern Greece. At this time of the year we can buy them fresh for the few short weeks that they are in season, but the bulk of the crop is actually roasted commercially and then bottled or canned so that they are available all year round. Preserved Florina peppers are available from good supermarkets and specialist food shops. This recipe uses the bottled variety. These have been roasted and peeled, giving the flesh a mellow sweetness.

The second ingredient is the feta cheese. This should be firm enough to cut into slices or fingers to fit the cavity in each pepper.

The third ingredient is some good olive oil to drizzle over everything before you put it into the oven.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade. Take a small roasting pan just large enough to take the peppers lying down in a single layer. Slip the feta cheese inside each pepper and arrange the peppers snugly. Pour over the liquid from the bottle or jar that the peppers came in. Drizzle over some olive oil and cover the pan tightly with foil. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the cheese starts to melt and the whole dish is sizzling happily.

Serve hot or at room temperature with lots of bread to soak up the juices.

Variations: You can sprinkle over some chopped flat leaved parsley before serving. You can also mash the feta cheese with finely chopped sun dried tomatoes or some garlic before stuffing the peppers with it.