September’s essential ingredient: Red meaty peppers

When September comes, the kitchens cannot be without mounds of meaty red pepper. Big and plump, thick and fleshy, bursting with juicy crispiness, and with their deep red nail-polish shine, they have a magnetic appeal. Those are the sweet ones, pretty much like thick-fleshed bell peppers, but they are long with pointy ends. When we talk about red peppers, one thinks of hot spicy varieties, but these on the contrary bear a distinct sweetness, though there are occasional hot ones that one must be cautious about. When they flood the market in September, people buy in bulk for winter provision preparations, price tags list quantities of 3 to 5 kilograms at a minimum; in the countryside, buying peppers in bulk in sacks is not an uncommon scene. When the first hints of fall are felt and when flocks of jars appear in stores, we all know that the clock is ticking to make endless jars of sauces or thick pepper paste to preserve the unmatched flavor of red peppers.

Red peppers are indispensable especially for savory spreads; a weirdly popular breakfast treat much-favored in the Balkans and Türkiye. We love to smear our bread with a generous helping of such spreads and pastes, not only made with red peppers but also sometimes mixed with tomatoes and roasted eggplants and spiked with onions and garlic. This means lots of labor in the kitchen. There are usually two ways to start coping with the pepper. They are either passed from a mincemeat machine to turn into a pulp, then simmered in large pots to reduce to a thick paste. Another way includes painstakingly roasting the peppers, peeling the cellophane-like thin skin, and then proceeding with the next steps. This latter means lots of labor, but there are always tricks for easier handling. If roasted peppers are put in a...