Food Storage Friday: Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Spread

Note: I took painstakingly, amazing photos for this post. Truly they were great. And my computer swallowed them up into her depths and they have vanished. These were the only ones left, I'm really sorry. It also ate my photos of my salmon burgers that I was planning on posting for my next Basic Cooking Skills post. But all the computer left of that one was this photo:

and that's just not going to hack it for salmon burgers.

But despite the lack of photos, this recipe is to die for!

It's so funny how my magazine reading habits have changed. Before the blog I would read for entertainment. For enjoyment. Now I read only for food storage recipes.

This recipes hails from Gourmet and is fabulously delicious. Really. Yum.

Ingredients: roasted red peppers, toasted walnuts, red wine vinegar, cumin, cayenne (or I used chili powder), salt, and olive oil.

(this is really weird without pictures) First I opened the jar of roasted red peppers (are you imagining it?) and poured them into my small colander

and rinsed them with cold water and then I let them drip dry while I toasted the walnuts. I put a cup of walnuts in a cake pan in the oven at 350 degrees F until I could smell the nuts, I don't know how else to explain it, other than, you just gotta smell it!

When the nuts had cooled a bit, I dumped all the ingredients (minus the oil) into the food processor and pulsed until it was pretty much smooth. Then, while the food processor was running, I poured the oil in (called streaming), and kept it running until it was totally smooth.

It was tasty as a dip with crackers, or I had it for lunch on homemade pita bread with cool, crisp cucumbers. Oh baby.

Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Spread

Gourmet Magazine

makes about 3 cups

2 (7-8oz) jars roasted red peppers, rinsed and drained

1 cup bread crumbs

1 cup walnuts (4oz) toasted

1 Tbsp red-wine vinegar

1/2 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp cayenne or chili powder

1/4 cup olive oil

Rinse and drain the red peppers. Toast walnuts in an oven safe dish at 350 degrees F for 5-15 minutes (keep your nose to the oven!). Puree roasted peppers, bread crumbs, walnuts, vinegar, cumin, cayenne, and 1/4 tsp salt in a food processor until almost smooth.

With motor running, add oil in a slow stream, blending until incorporated.

Serve with crackers, toast, chips or pita bread.

***Another Note: I halved the recipe because I only had one jar of peppers and it turned out super. Plenty for our family of 4.