Albanian Fergese with Peak-Harvest Peppers, Tomatoes and Fresh Cheese

Char the peppers directly over a gas flame or under a hot broiler until the skins are blackened all over, turning them as they blister. Put them in a bowl and cover it — the trapped steam loosens the skins so they slip off in sheets.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 6 large sweet red and green peppers
• 5 ripe farmers-market tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole milk
• 10 oz gjize or fresh ricotta, drained
• 5 oz feta, crumbled
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• Fine sea salt and black pepper

Instructions

1. Char the peppers directly over a gas flame or under a hot broiler until the skins are blackened all over, turning them as they blister. Put them in a bowl and cover it — the trapped steam loosens the skins so they slip off in sheets.
2. Peel, seed and tear the peppers into wide strips. Tear rather than slice; the ragged edges hold the sauce better than clean knife cuts do.
3. Heat the olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat and cook the onion slowly for 10 minutes until soft and sweet but not browned. Rushing this step is the single most common way to end up with a fergese that tastes sharp instead of mellow.
4. Add the garlic and paprika and stir for 30 seconds until fragrant, then add the chopped tomatoes and a good pinch of salt. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until the tomatoes collapse and the mixture thickens to a jammy sauce with no watery pool at the edge.
5. While the tomatoes cook, make the roux: melt the butter in a small pan, whisk in the flour and cook for a minute, then pour in the milk in a steady stream, whisking constantly until you have a smooth, thick bechamel.
6. Take the bechamel off the heat and beat in the gjize or ricotta until creamy, then fold in half the feta. Season with black pepper — go easy on salt, since the feta brings plenty.
7. Stir the pepper strips into the tomato sauce, then fold the cheese mixture through until everything is streaked together but not fully homogenous.
8. Scrape it all into a clay or ceramic baking dish, scatter over the remaining feta, and bake at 425F for 20 to 25 minutes until bubbling and blistered brown in patches.
9. Rest it for 5 minutes, shower with parsley, and serve straight from the dish with plenty of crusty bread for scraping.
10. Fergese is Tirana's signature dish, and in Albania it is treated less as a side than as the center of the table. The traditional version uses gjize, a fresh unsalted curd cheese that Albanian households once made weekly from surplus milk; ricotta stands in convincingly. August is exactly when this dish makes sense — the peppers and tomatoes coming off the plains around Lushnje and Fier are at their sugariest, and Albanian cooks build the entire late-summer table around them. Some families add liver or veal, but the vegetarian original is the one you find in every Tirana tavern, served in the same small clay dish it was baked in.

Nutrition (estimated, per serving)

• Calories: 520 kcal
• Protein: 21g
• Fat: 38g
• Carbohydrates: 26g
• Fiber: 5g
• Sugar: 14g
• Sodium: 880mg