"Tasty layers of rich pureed tomato, red and green horn peppers make up this simply tasty side dish."
Ntomatofai
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Prep time 10mins
Cook time 1hr 45mins
Serves or Makes: 7
Recipe Card
ingredients
- 1 1/2 kilogram ripe, soft tomatoes
- 7 green horn-peppers
- 7 red horn-peppers
- 1 soupspoon raw sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 200 milliliter extra virgin olive oil
How to prepare the tomatoes...
Method
Step 1
Coarsely chop the tomatoes and place them in a bowl
Step 2
Blitz the tomatoes with a hand-held mixer, blender or food processor, until pureed/liquefied
Step 3
Pour the tomato puree into a large baking dish and season with salt, sugar, and a generous amount of EVOO (approximately 50ml)
Step 4
The tomato puree needs to be baked until most or all the water in it has been cooked off
Step 5
Place the baking dish into an oven preheated to 200°C, for approximately 1 hour. Initially, check and stir the puree every 15 minutes. After 45 minutes, check every 5 minutes for pools of juice forming within the baking dish, by pushing the puree out from the centre of the pan with a spoon. As the puree continues to cook, you will see less pooling within the baking dish. It’s very important to keep a close eye on the oven and the baking dish at this stage because the tomato puree can burn easily once it’s dehydrated
Step 6
Once there is little or no juice pooling in the dish and the tomato puree is essentially dehydrated, remove the baking dish from the oven and set it aside
Prepare the peppers
Step 1
Wash all the peppers thoroughly, removing any dirt or dust
Step 2
Cut the tops off the green peppers; cut them in half; remove the veins and seeds; and then cut each half into thirds on a diagonal, creating long strips
Step 3
Generously drizzle EVOO (approximately 25ml) over the base of a large baking dish
Step 4
Place pepper pieces, in a single layer, into the baking dish
Step 5
Drizzle more EVOO on top of the peppers and season with salt
Step 6
Place the baking dish with the peppers into the hot oven, for approximately 30 minutes or until lightly browned on the underside
Step 7
Turn the peppers over and return them to the oven for another 10-15 minutes
Step 8
Once browned on both sides, remove the peppers from the oven and carefully place a single layer of them over the dehydrated tomato puree. Set aside
Step 9
Repeat the above steps to prepare the red peppers
Step 10
Once browned on both sides, remove the red peppers from the oven and carefully add them to the baking dish of green peppers and tomato puree
Bake the Ntomatofai
Step 1
Generously drizzle the ntomatofai with EVOO (approximately 75ml)
Step 2
Return the baking dish to the hot oven for 10-15 minutes or until the peppers have browned a little more on top
Step 3
Remove the baking dish from the oven and drizzle with more EVOO (approximately 25ml)
Serve the Ntomatofai
Step 1
Serve with crusty bread or Risoni Rice and enjoy!
Key Points
Step 1
Use over ripe, soft tomatoes as they have more flavour
Step 2
Use horn-peppers as they have thinner flesh and skin, with less water and more flavour. Their skin also remains attached to the flesh
Step 3
Red peppers have a higher sugar content than green peppers and will caramelise quicker, so best to bake the different peppers separately
Step 4
It’s very important that you don’t place more than one layer of peppers in the baking dish as they will not roast and caramelise, but rather steam cook
Step 5
All the baking is done at 200°C in a fan-forced oven
Step 6
Cumulatively use 200ml or more EVOO when preparing this dish. The EVOO will improve the caramelisation of the tomato puree and peppers as they bake and the extra drizzle at the end of all the baking will enhance the flavour and experience of this dish