Hors d'oeuvres provencale - country cooking

8 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
Roasted Sweet Peppers (recipe follows)
Baby Artichoke Hearts (recipe follows)
White Bean Salad (recipe follows)
Fresh sage sprigs (opt.)

Directions

1. Several hours before serving, prepare Roasted Sweet Peppers, Baby Artichoke Hearts, and White Bean Salad (recipes follow).

2. To serve, arrange Roasted Sweet Peppers, Baby Artichoke Hearts, and White Bean Salad on chilled serving platter. Garnish with sage sprigs, if desired. if not using immediately, refrigerate arranged platter until 20 minutes before serving.

Roasted Sweet Peppers: Heat oven to 400'F. Brush 1 T olive oil over 2 sweet red peppers, 2 sweet green peppers, and 2 sweet yellow peppers.

Place peppers on baking sheet and roast, turning several times, 25 minutes or until peppers soften slightly and skins blacken. With tongs, place peppers into large brown paper bag; close bag and set aside 30 niinutes. Skin, core, and cut peppers into thick strips. In medium-size bowl, combine pepper strips with ¼ C extra extra olive oil, 1 T lemon juice, 1 T chopped fresh sage leaves, ¼ t salt, and ¼ t ground black pepper. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.

Baby Artichoke Hearts: Remove tough outer leaves from 10 baby arti- chokes; cut each artichoke in half and scrape out spiny centers or "chokes." In heavy 2½-quart saucepan, combine 6 C water, artichoke hearts, 1 lemon, cut in half and squeezed into pan, and 1 bay leaf and heat to boiling; cook artichokes 15 to 20 minutes or until fork tender. Drain artichokes well; discard lemon. In large bowl, combine artichokes with ¼ C olive oil, 2 T red-winc vinegar, 4 dried tomato halves, rehydrated and cut into slivers, 1 t chopped fresh marjoram leaves, 1 clove garlic, finely chopped, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ t ground black pepper. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.

White Bean Salad: If using dried beans, at least one day before serving, rinse 2 C dried Great Northern beans. Place beans in large bowl; cover with cold water and let soak overnight. Drain beans, place in heavy 2 ½-quart saucepan; cover with water and heat to boiling. Cover pan partially and cook over low heat until just tender-about 45 minutes. Drain beans, place in large bowl, and stir in 1 small red onion, thinly sliced, 1 clove garlic, finely chopped, ¼ C olive oil, 2 T finely chopped fresh parsley, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 T finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves, ½ t ground black pepper, and ½ t salt. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.

Country Cooking/Summer/94 Scanned & fixed by Di and Gary

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