Greek Fried Green Peppers (Piperies Tiganites)

Piperies tiganites shows just how far three ingredients can go in Greek cooking: small green peppers, olive oil and salt, fried whole until the skin blisters and the inside turns sweet and soft. There is no filling, no elaborate technique, just heat applied properly to a good pepper.

Long, thin, mild green frying peppers, sometimes labelled Turkish or Italian frying peppers, are exactly right here, since they are sweet rather than hot and thin-walled enough to cook through quickly. A standard blocky bell pepper is too thick and takes considerably longer without the same result.

This is quick meze food, ready in under fifteen minutes, and it disappears fast whenever it hits a table alongside ouzo or a cold beer.

Key preparation steps

1. Choose thin-walled, mild green frying peppers.
2. Fry whole in olive oil until blistered on all sides.
3. Season with salt while hot.
4. Serve with a squeeze of lemon.

Choosing the right pepper

Long, thin green frying peppers, mild rather than hot, are what this dish needs, since they cook through quickly and have a genuinely sweet flavour once fried. A standard thick-walled bell pepper is the wrong choice here, taking far longer to cook through and never quite achieving the same blistered, collapsed texture.

Frying whole

Fry the whole peppers, stem left on, in a generous amount of olive oil over a medium-high heat, turning regularly, for about ten to twelve minutes, until the skin has blistered and browned in places on every side and the flesh has turned properly soft.

Finishing

Drain briefly and season generously with salt while still hot, since salt sticks and dissolves better on a warm surface. Serve with lemon wedges for squeezing over at the table, and eat with your hands, holding the stem, the way this dish is traditionally enjoyed.

What matters in this dish