Blistered Shishito Peppers with Calabrese Aioli

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Patio season has finally arrived in Toronto, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. It’s been a long, cold, and wet spring in this province, and we’ve been camped out in a rain cloud for much longer than usual. I was starting to have my doubts, but the switch has finally flipped, and summer has arrived. We never ease into summer; it just sort of shows up one day. Throughout those chilly spring months, I couldn’t stop fantasizing about summer cocktails and patio-friendly snacks like these Blistered Shishito Peppers with Calabrese Aioli. With its minimal prep, local produce, and bold flavours, this dish has everything I look for in a summer cookout starter. Unfussy but elegant in its way, just the aesthetic I’m going for this summer. So let’s make it!

Grab a hunk of your Calabrese sausage and give it a small dice. Make sure to remove the tough outer skin of the salami before dicing. This is a collagen casing; it’s completely edible, but it’s tough to cut through and can be chewy to eat. It will be much easier to dice the meat without it getting in our way. 

Transfer your meat to a cold skillet and fry over low heat. We want to cook our Calabrese slowly so it has ample opportunity to expel as much of its fat as possible. If we start at a high temperature or approach a high temperature too quickly, we will sear the meat, and that will form a seal, which will inhibit how much fat will render out. So let the meat coast in the background while you get the remaining aioli ingredients together. 

Place an egg yolk, minced garlic, Dijon mustard, neutral oil, lime juice, and salt in a high-powered blender or smoothie cup. If the raw egg wigs you out, I totally get it and you have options. You can coddle the egg by plunging it into boiling water for 1 minute. Try not to exceed the one-minute mark or the yolk will be too thick to whisk and emulsify properly. Transfer the egg to an ice bath to stop the cooking process, and then separate the yolk from the white as you normally would. 

Now, we’re going to use the peppery fat we render out of the Calabrese to help build our aioli. Strain the crisp Calabrese through a fine mesh strainer and allow the oil to collect in a small glass or bowl. Set the diced Calabrese aside and pour the rendered fat into the blender, along with the remaining aioli ingredients. Blitz until a thick, smooth aioli forms. I love this little trick because it enhances the dish in two ways. Not only do we get crisp, perfect sausage croutons, but we also get a porky hit of spice in our aioli. Not too shabby.

Now, let’s talk shishito peppers. If you are unfamiliar, shishito peppers are a thin-walled mild pepper traditionally cultivated in Japan. Their name comes from the observation that the pepper’s tip resembles the head of a lion. Lion is “shishi” in Japanese. Roughly one out of every 10-20 peppers is spicy. So if you’re eating with someone heat-averse, enjoy this very unusual form of Russian roulette. I was lucky enough to get my hands on some local peppers. But imported varieties are relatively ubiquitous in most grocery stores these days.

To blister your shishito peppers, heat a dry cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until smoking. Add your peppers to the pan and spread them in an even layer. Leave them undisturbed until they start to smoke and sputter and the seeds begin to pop. Using tongs, flip the shishito peppers and repeat this process. This should happen fairly quickly. At the end of roughly 6-8 minutes, you should have a batch of perfectly blistered shishito peppers.

Once your peppers are ready, you’re on the clock. Sadly, once they are cooked, shishito peppers tend to deteriorate. Their texture goes from tender to soggy fairly quickly. And I find them less than compelling when cold. So when your peppers are done, move with purpose. Take a spoonful of your Calabreses Aioli and place it in the center of a large platter. Using the back of a spoon, create a series of swoops. Top the aioli with your blistered shishito peppers and sprinkle them with your Calabrese croutons and a pinch of finishing salt. Serve your peppers immediately with lime wedges and additional aioli on the side.

And that’s everything you need to know about these Blistered Shishito Peppers with Calabrese Aioli. Simple and quick to put together for a crowd and deeply satisfying. What more could you want from your patio fare?

Enjoy!