Sweet and sour red pepper sauce

This is one of those recipes that go from mouth to ear, I learnt it from my mother so I really don't know where it comes from exactly. It reminds of ketchup, but with red pepper instead of tomato. It is delicious, a simple yet effective recipe, wonderful with grilled meat and cheeses, like fried brie or grilled provolone.



Here goes the recipe:

• 400 g red peppers, home-roasted or canned
  
• 200 g sugar
• 100 g vinegar (I use organic cider vinegar, I like it best)
  
• 50 g water

This time I decided to skip the sugar (cringe) and use 110 g agave syrup instead, which makes it diabetic-friendly as far as I know. Being that the syrup is already liquid, I skipped the water too. Yet at the end of the boiling I had to add a couple of tablespoons of water, because I found the sauce a bit too thick. I could have reduced the cooking time too, but I wasn't in time.


You can roast the red peppers yourself (that's what I usually do), but canned peppers work just as well. You start by cutting the peeled peppers in pieces, put them in a pan, add the rest of ingredients and cook the mixture for half an hour, stirring every now and then. If you use a Thermomix, 30 minutes at Varoma temperature and speed 1 (Thermomix 21). It's possible to leave a chunky consistency or you can just process it and get a final consistency like a thick tomato sauce.

You need to sterilize previously a couple of small glass jars with lid. Just boil them in water for half an hour, with a cloth on the bottom of the pan to prevent them from breaking (the final sauce amount is not more than two small jars, but it's not something you eat by the bucket, it's very flavourful). Took the jars out of the water and let them drain on a clean kitchen towel. Pour the sauce in the jars almost to the brim. Then sterilize the filled jars in the same pan and water you used previously, with the water level just below the lids, during another half hour.


Let them cool in an upside down position and... enjoy!