30 SECOND RECIPE

Pimientos de Guernica

I have been nose deep in Mark Kurlansky's writing for the past month. "Salt" enthralled me, so I immediately moved on to the equally entertaining "The Basque History of the World," and look forward to tackling "Cod" immediately after. As I've been working my through his history of the Basques, I've been dog earring the pages containing recipes, licking my chops over the Itxassou cherry cake, hare with walnuts and chocolate, and the onomatopoeic pil pil, named for the sound the salt cod makes as it's being stirred into oil. My attention immediately turned to the Pimientos de Guernica for their simple "Basque" loveliness. The perfect tapas dish, it's historically made with Vizcayan choricero peppers, but conveniently made with Spanish padron peppers I found at the farmers' market. Most are nutty and sweet, but every now and then one is packed with some Iberian heat.

2 cups pimientos de padron or pimientos de choricero

1/4 cup olive oil

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

Salt

Rub the peppers with a cloth, heat a pan over a medium high flame, add the olive oil and immediately add the peppers. Let them sizzle for a few minutes and add the garlic; turn the peppers as you need, until they are blistered and browned all over. Sprinkle with a bunch of salt, serve on a plate with a Rioja White. Enjoy!