Peperonata is not a quick vegetable side. It is an exercise in patience, a demonstration that heat applied slowly over time produces results that speed cannot replicate. The peppers must cook until they collapse. The tomatoes must reduce until they cling. There is no shortcut worth taking.

I use no green peppers. Green peppers are simply unripe, and their bitterness has no place here. Red, yellow, and orange peppers bring sweetness that deepens as they cook. The color in the finished dish should be warm and inviting, like sunset over the Amalfi coast.

This is peasant cooking from Campania and Calabria, where women cooked peppers this way because they had time and heat and good vegetables, and because the result was worth the effort. It improves overnight in the refrigerator. Many would say it is better the next day. I would not argue with them.