Sweet pepper relish

This is one of my favorite recipes for this time of year. I normally roast an entire head of garlic, then use some in this recipe as well as just spreading it on warm bread and devouring it.

Truly, it can be used as as dressing (with a tad of balsamic vinegar and honey added) or just a topper for vegetables in general, or for dipping crackers. No matter how you use it, it won't last long.

Make lots of this while red and yellow sweet peppers are in season!

Sweet pepper relish
2 large sweet peppers, yellow or red, cleaned and roughly chopped
6-8 cloves of raw garlic
about 1 cup of cleaned, destemmed fresh parsley
olive oil
1 tsp. white sugar (optional)
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lay the cloves of garlic, preferably unpeeled, in the center of a square of aluminum foil. Drizzle with olive oil. Pull all the edges of the foil up over the garlic and squeeze it at the top, creating a sealed "packet". Place in oven for 40 minutes. Remove and cool.

In a small food processor, combine the garlic cloves (they should peel easily after being roasted) parsley, about 1/4 cup of olive oil and 1/3 of the pepper pieces. Pulse until smooth. Dump mixture into a separate container. Then, put the remaining pepper pieces into the processor and just chop until the pieces are smaller, but it's not liquified.

Stir in a few red pepper flakes to give it a kick. If the peppers aren't homegrown, you might also want to add a bit of sugar to sweeten it up.

Use as a topping for raw or steamed vegetables, or as a dip. Add more olive oil to taste. Salt optional.