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08/24/2017 12:01 AMOur second-to-last boules party took place just a couple Sundays ago. Many of the players are French. Others are married to French people. Many French people, whether they just grew up in France and moved elsewhere, play boules. Some grew up playing bocce, like David Rufo, who owns the Bee & Thistle in Old Lyme. Few of us were athletes. For me, I love boules because I can’t really play anything else.
I also love boules because the food is incredible. Lots of our players are, or have been, chefs. And when I say “chefs,” I am not talking about home cooks. I do all right in my kitchen, where I have everything needed to make good food. I could not even work in a restaurant kitchen. I can walk and chew gum at the same time, but I usually have to pay attention when I am cooking, and a restaurant kitchen, to me, would be bedlam.
I have also mentioned before that I didn’t even like food growing up. Today I know people who will say they don’t like a certain food, even if they had never tasted it. I was one of those people, but peer pressure and college cafeteria food changed my finickiness.
About 35 of us sat at tables on the porch and patio of Charlie Van Over and Priscilla Martel’s home, I savored the food they’d made and also loved the fact that not one asked for substitutions or mewled at what they didn’t like. And each year, at Priscilla and Charlie’s house, I know there would be a platter of tiny sweet chili peppers stuffed with anchovies and garlic in a perfectly scented extra-virgin olive oil, even though eating anchovies would have been a slow death just a few decades ago. Here’s Priscilla’s recipe.
Peppers with Anchovies and Garlic
Priscilla Martel
Yield: 4 appetizer portions (if I am one of the 4) or 8 to 10 (most people)
40 small sweet red, orange, or yellow peppers
40 thin slices of fresh garlic
10 anchovy fillets
Freshly ground pepper
Fresh thyme
Extra-virgin olive oil
Grated Parmigiano-Reggiono
Grease a large baking pan (or use Silpat) and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Slice the peppers in half, vertically, and remove the seeds. Put them skin side down on the baking pad. Onto each half pepper put a sliver of garlic, a quarter of an anchovy fillet, and ground pepper. Sprinkle each pepper with fresh thyme, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with Reggiano-Parmagianio. Bake until tender and brown, about 20 minutes. Can be served hot or at room temperature.