Here's a unique recipe with multiple tastes that makes a great side dish with meat, or just eaten plain over rice. It's a French dish called Mireillade, a bell pepper ratatouille. Although it features bell peppers, I find the grapes and lemons make the dish.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 180 minutes
Ingredients
3 red peppers
3 yellow peppers
3 green peppers
1/2 cup Black olives
1/2 cup Green olives (I used Castelvetrano)
1 to 2 lemons (according to taste)
Salt & Pepper
Olive oil
A large bunch of seedless grapes (I used Sun World's Adora Seedless® Black Grapes)
Preparation:
Wash all ingredients, cut the peppers into small to medium squares, olives in half. Wash the lemons and cut into very thin slices leaving the skin on and quarter. Remove the grapes from the stems and wash, leaving whole. You can use other grape varieties, but you'll want to consider the taste blending when you also choose the varieties of black and green peppers to make a complimentary mix of flavors. I do recommend grape varieties with a large size so they don't turn into raisins and have enough juice to blend into the lemon slices.
Take a large shallow sheet pan, one that you can layer the ingredients as flat as possible. Mix and layer all the ingredients into the pan. Drizzle olive oil over the ingredients in the pan, and salt and pepper to taste. The ingredients will be reduced to about half through cooking.
Bake for 3 hours at 300° F, stirring regularly (about every 1/2 hour).
Serves 6 (large servings)
Here is the finished product I kept warm in a small crock pot (not all would fit into the pot at a time). I served it with turkey to raves from friends. The grapes add a sweetness and turn the lemon slices into sour candy-like pieces. I learned about Sun World grapes while consulting (non-food related) for Sun World. Sun World has developed proprietary varieties that are larger and more flavorful, in my opinion, than the usual grapes at the market. These remind me of premium grapes I ate in Japan, and had not ever seen in the market in the US (back in the 70s). I snatch any of their varieties up whenever I see them at Safeway.
