Photo by: Maria Zizka
Summer entertaining should be easy and mellow. I love having friends over throughout the year, but there's something especially wonderful about cooking during the summer. It's impossible not to be inspired when shopping for ingredients: plump tomatoes look so ripe they might burst, peaches and plums pile up, and fresh basil is sold in bunches as big as bouquets of flowers. When you get home, there's not much that's needed to be done in the kitchen. The tomatoes are sliced, sprinkled with salt, and maybe drizzled with olive oil. The basil leaves get torn. The peaches and plums are perfect just as they are. It may be considered the clich of California cooking, but I'll always take a beautiful, juicy peach over one that's been cooked, overly handled, or otherwise messed with.
During summer, I even like to take this hands-off approach to cooking one step further. I leave the final step of assembling a dish to my guests. For a sushi meal, I'll steam the rice and slice the vegetables and fish, then set everything out on a platter and let my friends roll their own sushi. On a particularly hot day, I'll gently poach shrimp, squid, cod, and scallops, chill the seafood in the refrigerator, and serve it hours later with garlicky aioli and undressed arugula, letting our guests put together a plate of exactly what they want. The time not spent cooking over a hot stove turns into more time around the table with people I love.
There are plenty of no-fuss appetizers: a small bowl of olives, sweet-and-salty mixed nuts, sliced prosciutto and ripe fruit, a cheese platter. If you're looking for a first course that fits this summer-style cooking and is a little special, try shishito peppers fried in a pan until blistered in a few spots. Sprinkled with flaky salt, they are as addictive as potato chips and they pair exceptionally well with ice-cold beer.
You may have seen shishito peppers in farmers markets and Asian grocery stores around town. The petite green peppers are easy to come by in the summer months, and they've become so popular that Trader Joe's now sells them pre-bagged.
Most shishito peppers are mild and sweet, with nearly the same level of heat as a bell pepper, but occasionally a rogue one will be fiery enough to surprise you. There's no way of knowing which pepper that will be. You can count on one spicy shishito in every handful or so. This quality only makes shishito peppers all the more fun to enjoy during summertime.
--
--
Blistered Shishito Pepper and Soft Cheese Toasts
If you come across Padr n peppers, they are very similar to shishitos and can definitely be substituted in this recipe.
Serves 4 to 6 as an appetizer
6 to 8 slices country-style bread
1 garlic clove, halved
1 cup fresh, soft cheese (such as farmers cheese, ricotta, or mild goat cheese)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
teaspoon sea salt
Large pinch of freshly ground black pepper
pound shishito peppers
Flaky sea salt
Toast the bread (in a toaster, under the broiler, or on a grill) and immediately rub each piece with the garlic.
In a bowl, stir together the soft cheese, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat for 1 minute. Swirl in the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, then add the peppers and stir to coat them in the oil. Cook, without stirring, for 1 minute, then stir and turn the peppers. Cook for another 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until blistered in a few spots.
Transfer the peppers to a platter and sprinkle generously with flaky salt. Serve promptly, with the toast and cheese alongside, letting your guests spread the cheese across the toast and top with peppers as they please. (The pepper stems are too fibrous to eat; set a small bowl on the table for tossing the stems.)
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Photo by: Maria Zizka 
