Immortal Peppers

My mom was Italian. Filetese to be exact. What? You do not know what a Filetese is? A Filetese is a person who comes from the great Italian metropolis of Fileto. Or Filetto. I can never remember. Current population: 300 or so families. But when I was growing up in the coal fields of Pennsylvania, and my family described OTHERS as either being Filetese or not Filetese, I believed Filete to be the capital of Italy.

Whatever. The Filetese were, at least, extremely good cooks and my mom and grandmother were among the best of those.

In the 1960's when I was a student at Penn State University, my mom would send me food during finals week. She would put the hot food in a styrofoam ice bucket, wrapped in layers and layers of newspaper and surrounded that with aluminum foil. Then she would take it to the Martz bus company in Scranton in the morning and eight hours later, I would get a call from the bus station in State College telling me my package had arrived. I would then get in a taxi and pick it up and bring it back to Lyons Hall. It was still very warm!

So many of the girls on my floor loved the food, that I would only get a few bites at best. She would make rigatoni in her special sauce with grated romano on top and send it with a side of peppers sauteed in olive oil. These peppers are the most divine things in the world. Sweet, savory, and never - never enough. They are eaten with fresh Italian bread - torn from the loaf, not cut. They are good hot and they are good cold.

Here is an approximation of my mom's recipe.

At least six peppers and if you have time and a big enough saute pan, you can add more.
Slice them lengthwise in about 6 slices to a pepper.
a clove of garlic
olive oil enough to coat the bottom of the pan very well. Do not be stingy.
Heat the garlic in the oil over medium heat. DO NOT BROWN THE GARLIC. If you do you will have to throw out the garlic and the oil and start over. This, my nephew TJ taught me. In fact, TJ should be writing these recipes, not me.

When the oil is hot, add the peppers. Keep adding peppers as they get smaller and start to wilt. Cook them down until they are completely wilted, browned and fragrant with the escaping sugars. Don't be surprised if this takes about an hour. Keep watching it, making sure that the peppers do not burn, but are nice and brown nevertheless.

When done, pour out the peppers and the oil that is left into a serving plate and then eat the whole thing before anyone has a chance to see you. Sop up all oil with the best Italian bread you can find.