Shepherd Peppers

Shepherd Peppers are huge, big sweet red peppers — very much like standard sweet red bell peppers in taste, thickness and colour, but somewhat juicier, and because of their size very easy to work with. Where you might plan two stuffed peppers for a guy with a healthy appetite, one Shepherd Pepper should absolutely do it.

They will vary in size from 18 to 25 cm (7 to 10 inches) long, and be about 7.5 cm (3 inches) wide. They take about 66 days to grow and ripen from green to red.

Cooking Tips

To roast: wash, stem, seed. Put on ungreased surface cut side down. Roast at 190 C (375 F) for about 25 to 30 minutes, until the skin on some of them begins to char. (How long exactly will depend on how hot your oven runs.) Remove from oven, let cool for about 10 to 15 minutes or until cool enough to handle safely. The skin will be wrinkled. Pinch it at one end, and most of the time you will be able to pull it away entirely from the pepper in one go. If the skin isn’t that wrinkled, then you need to roast longer. If the skin sticks a lot, then you need to let it cool a bit more. If you are doing a lot in one go, spread out on rimmed baking sheets. Lining baking sheets with tin foil makes clean-up easier.

Substitutes

Red bell peppers

Equivalents

1 Shepherd Pepper = 2 standard-sized red bell peppers

1 half US bushel = 5 kg (11 lbs)

Storage Hints

About a week or more in vegetable crisper; a few days unrefrigerated

History Notes

Possibly developed in Italy.