Roasted Red Peppers

Preheat broiler as hot as you can get it. Turn red peppers under the broiler until their skins come up in black bubbles. Cool the peppers until you can handle them comfortably.

Remove the skins, stems, cores and seeds. (This is messy work. I have tried removing the innards first, before putting the peppers under the broiler, and the result is not so good as this way.)

Cut the peppers into finger shapes. Flavor them with fresh lemon juice and salt. Let them sit for several hours, draining off the liquid that forms.

NOTES:

* A low-calorie but flavorful red pepper salad — Safeway got in their first carload of really cheap red peppers yesterday, and I made roasted pepper salad.

Serve this at room temperature as a side dish for anything Nicoise or yoghurt, a bowl of chopped onion, some black olives, radishes and pistachios, and lots of warm pita bread. Or use it with sauteed garlic and pitted black olives and a little reduced white wine as a spaghetti sauce. Yield: Serves 4.

* Now. Here is the real point about this recipe: These roasted peppers are insanely delicious, smooth and unctuous and aromatic, and yet they contain absolutely no calories. A full-sized red pepper is only 15 calories.

* Of course I could lose weight if I never ate more than three tablespoons of anything. Any fool could do that. But I don't want to confine myself to three tablespoons. Perhaps my taste buds work more slowly that other people's. I don't seem to get the hang of what I'm eating till the second serving, or sometimes the third.

* At the same time, I want things that are really voluptuous and good to eat, full of interesting, complicated flavors that will satisfy me and make celery stalks and carrots. Unfortunately, any number of carrot sticks over six makes me grumpish, and raw celery turns me positively surly in short cheese.

: Difficulty: easy. : Time: 15 minutes preparation, several hours aging. : Precision: no need to measure.

: Mary-Claire van Leunen : DEC Systems Research Center, Palo Alto, California, USA

Your Roasted Red Peppers is ready. Buon appetito!