Ruby Salad

We started making this in Christmas 2009, in which we basically cooked and ate everything from Nigella Lawson's Christmas book. It's a little fiddly for a weekday; unless you are working from home and want a little break, or have someone very patient to do the pomegranate while you prepare everything else, I recommend doing this only on special occasions or during a relaxing weekend. But it's well worth all the time and effort, and I always end up making too much... this definitely serves two as a side, since I aimed to make enough for one and had one portion left over.

Ingredients:

• 3 sweet pointed peppers, or 2 bell peppers (yellow, orange or red)
• 1 pomegranate
• 2 generous tbsp capers
• juice of half a lime
• very good olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200C. Slice the peppers in half and deseed. Place in a small baking dish: you want them all to have their own space but not lie so far apart that they dry out and burn. Toss with a little olive oil and cook for 25 minutes, or until the edges just begin to go black. Bell peppers may take a little longer than pointed peppers. Remove and place immediately in a pyrex bowl and cover with a plate, or seal in a small freezer bag. Leave for a good hour to steam in their own heat; this will make the skins come loose. You really want to do this quite a long time before you want to eat, otherwise you'll be tempted to leave them too short a time and the skin won't come off properly.

Meanwhile, deseed the pomegranate. I usually slice the fruit into quarters and pop the seeds out by hand in a very large plastic tub, using water to separate the seeds from pith and skin if the latter is clingy. My family has reported some success with Jamie Oliver's whacking method. Personally I find it totally ineffective, while also mushing half of the seeds to pulp, but each to their own!

Skin and thickly slice the peppers. Combine the peppers, pomegranate seeds, capers and dress with the lime and olive oil. Serve!