There are some dishes that are simply meant to be put in the middle of the table. A generous platter, plenty of bread alongside and everyone helping themselves. These Roasted Romano Peppers with Stracciatella and Olive Dressing are exactly that kind of food.
It is a dish built for that relaxed way of eating, where nobody is particularly concerned with neat portions and the best mouthful is the one that scoops up a little of everything. The peppers are soft and sweet from the oven, the stracciatella cool and creamy, with enough saltiness and sharpness running through the plate to keep you going back for more.
Making the stracciatella at home is one of my favourite parts of the recipe. It sounds far more complicated than it is, and most of the time involved is simply leaving it alone in the fridge. A few hours later, it has that wonderfully loose, creamy texture that works so beautifully on a platter like this.
Bring the whole thing to the table at room temperature, tear into some good bread and let everyone help themselves. This is very much food for lingering around the table rather than plating up and passing around.
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- The stracciatella is easier than it sounds. No cheesemaking equipment or special technique, just torn mozzarella and double cream left in the fridge for a few hours until you have that creamy, stringy centre you find inside a ball of burrata.
- The dressing does a lot with very little. Olives, capers, garlic and parsley come together in minutes, bringing enough saltiness and sharpness to cut through the stracciatella and balance the sweetness of the roasted peppers.
- The char is worth waiting for. Let the peppers properly soften, collapse and catch a little colour in the oven. Those charred edges bring out their sweetness and give the finished dish so much more flavour.
- It sits beautifully between summer and autumn. You still have the colour and sweetness of peppers, but roasting them and serving them with creamy stracciatella gives the dish enough warmth for those first cooler days. It’s exactly the sort of sharing plate I like when summer is beginning to give way to autumn.
What is Stracciatella ?
Stracciatella is the soft, creamy cheese filling you find inside a ball of burrata. It is made from strands of fresh mozzarella mixed with cream, giving it that wonderfully loose, milky texture that spills out when you cut into burrata.
The name comes from the Italian word stracciare, meaning “to tear” or “to shred”, referring to the strands of mozzarella that are torn before being mixed with cream.
For this recipe, we’re making a simple version at home by tearing fresh mozzarella into fine strands and leaving it to sit in double cream with a little salt. After a few hours in the fridge, the mozzarella softens into the cream and you get that lovely rich, stringy texture without having to make cheese from scratch.
It’s worth knowing that stracciatella can also refer to an Italian soup and a type of gelato, but when we’re talking about burrata, this is the cheese.
What you’ll Need
Romano peppers. These long, slender red peppers are naturally sweet and become beautifully soft once roasted. Look for firm peppers with smooth, glossy skins. Halving them lengthways gives you those lovely generous pieces that soften and collapse in the oven while catching a little char around the edges.
Extra virgin olive oil. This is used both for roasting the peppers and generously in the olive dressing. Use an extra virgin olive oil you enjoy the flavour of, as it becomes an important part of the dressing, carrying all those salty, sharp flavours across the peppers and stracciatella and leaving plenty on the platter to scoop up with bread.
Fresh parsley. Flat-leaf parsley is my choice for the dressing. Finely chopping it means it runs right through the olives and capers, bringing freshness without becoming too prominent.
Garlic. I use a generous amount here because the garlic goes into the dressing raw. Chop it very finely so it becomes part of the dressing rather than leaving you with large, sharp pieces.
Green olives. Choose olives that you genuinely enjoy eating on their own. Something firm and briny works beautifully here. Chop them fairly finely, but not so much that you lose their texture altogether.
Capers. These bring that lovely salty sharpness that works so well against the creamy stracciatella and sweet peppers. I like them roughly chopped so you still get little bursts of caper through the dressing.
Fresh mozzarella. A regular fresh mozzarella ball is all you need to make the stracciatella. Tear it into thin, irregular strands rather than chunks. Those strands are what give the finished cheese its characteristic texture once they have had time to sit in the cream.
Double cream. Poured over the torn mozzarella and left to sit for a few hours, the cream works its way around the strands until everything becomes wonderfully loose and creamy. You can add a little more if your mozzarella absorbs it and the stracciatella feels too firm.
Fresh basil and chilli flakes. Both are saved for the finished platter. A little fresh basil works beautifully with the roasted peppers, while the chilli flakes bring just enough warmth without turning this into a spicy dish.
Salt and freshly ground black pepper. Season the peppers before roasting, but be more careful when you get to the dressing. The olives and capers already bring plenty of saltiness, so taste it before deciding whether it needs any more.
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How to Make It
Start with the stracciatella. Tear the mozzarella into thin, irregular strands rather than small chunks, then gently stir through the double cream and a good pinch of salt. It may look quite loose at first, but after 2–4 hours in the fridge the mozzarella will soften into the cream and become wonderfully creamy and stringy.
Let the peppers really soften. Halve the Romano peppers lengthways, coat them with extra virgin olive oil and season with salt, then roast at 200°C for 20–25 minutes. You want them completely soft and beginning to collapse, with a few charred patches around the edges. If they’re still holding their shape firmly, give them another few minutes. Leave them to cool before assembling.
Make the olive dressing. Finely chop the parsley, green olives and garlic, and roughly chop the capers so there is still a little texture. Stir everything together with black pepper and a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil. The dressing should be loose enough to spoon easily over the platter, with plenty of that lovely flavoured oil running through it. Taste before adding any salt, as the olives and capers may already provide enough.
Bring the platter together. Spoon some of the stracciatella onto your serving plate, then arrange the roasted peppers over and around it. Add the remaining stracciatella between the peppers, keeping everything quite relaxed rather than covering them completely. Spoon the olive dressing generously over the top, making sure some of that oil finds its way down onto the plate.
Finish just before serving. Scatter over chilli flakes and fresh basil leaves, then bring the whole platter to the table with plenty of good bread alongside. You want the bread there to catch the stracciatella, peppers and every last bit of the olive dressing left on the plate.
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Helpful Tips and Tricks
- Give the stracciatella time to rest. While 2–4 hours will do the job, an overnight rest gives the mozzarella more time to soften into the cream, leaving you with a looser, more luscious stracciatella. The finer strands soften beautifully, while larger pieces tend to stay firmer, so it is worth taking the time to tear the mozzarella well. Take it out of the fridge 15–20 minutes before assembling so it loses that firm, fridge-cold texture.
- Don’t be afraid of a little char on the peppers. Romano peppers become sweeter as they roast, and those darker patches around the edges bring a lot of flavour. What matters is that the flesh is completely soft and yielding rather than still having any firmness.
- The dressing wants plenty of olive oil. You want enough extra virgin olive oil to create a loose, generous dressing that runs over the stracciatella and peppers and gathers at the bottom of the platter. You can prepare it a day or two beforehand and keep it covered in the fridge. The olive oil will thicken when chilled, so bring the dressing back to room temperature and give it a good stir before using.
- Let the roasted peppers cool before assembling. They don’t need to be completely cold, but avoid putting them onto the stracciatella while they’re still hot. The dish is much nicer around room temperature, when the peppers are soft and the stracciatella is creamy.
- Wait until the end for the basil. Add the fresh leaves once the platter is ready for the table so they stay fresh and don’t wilt into the dressing.
Q: Can I use red bell peppers instead of Romano peppers?
A: Yes. Romano peppers are naturally sweeter and have thinner flesh and skin, which become beautifully soft when roasted. Red bell peppers will work too, but because their skins are thicker, I would peel them after roasting. Let the roasted peppers sit until they’re cool enough to handle, then gently pull away the loosened skin before assembling the platter. They may also need a little longer in the oven than Romano peppers.
Q: Can I use red bell peppers instead of Romano peppers?
A: Yes. Romano peppers are naturally sweeter and have thinner flesh and skin, which become beautifully soft when roasted. Red bell peppers will work too, but because their skins are thicker, I would peel them after roasting. Let the roasted peppers sit until they’re cool enough to handle, then gently pull away the loosened skin before assembling the platter. They may also need a little longer in the oven than Romano peppers.
Q: Can I roast the peppers ahead of time?
A: Yes. The Romano peppers can be roasted up to a day in advance and kept covered in the fridge. Take them out 20–30 minutes before assembling so they can come back towards room temperature. Their sweetness and soft texture come through much better once they’ve lost the fridge chill.
Q: What should I serve with roasted Romano peppers and stracciatella?
A: Good bread is really all this platter needs. Something with a crisp crust and enough structure for scooping up the stracciatella and olive dressing is ideal. Focaccia, ciabatta or toasted sourdough would all work particularly well.
Looking for more sharing recipes? Here are few of our favourites
Grilled Courgettes with Dill Dressing
Grilled Potatoes with Avocado Cream
Crispy Lettuce and Parmesan Salad
If you make this recipe I’d love to hear how it turned out. Leave a comment below and let me know. It genuinely makes a difference to know what’s working and what isn’t, and I read every single one. You can also find me on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook where I share new recipes, behind the scenes and whatever else is happening in the kitchen at Poetry of Spices.
Ingredients
For the Stracciatella
For the Roasted Romano Peppers
For the Olive Dressing
To Finish
method
(200 g fresh mozzarella • 100–120 ml double cream • pinch of salt)
(8 Romano peppers • 1½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil • salt)
(Handful flat-leaf parsley • 4 garlic cloves • 8 green olives • 2 tbsp capers • freshly ground black pepper • salt, if needed • extra virgin olive oil)
(Stracciatella • roasted Romano peppers • olive dressing)
(Chilli flakes • fresh basil leaves)