A quick & easy side dish for a meat entrée or a vegetable for a vegetarian meal. We use it as one of the items on a salad plate.
*See Kitchen Notes for more information and related links (if applicable).
Prep your ingredients first because this process moves pretty fast.
In a skillet heat the olive oil over medium heat. (I use a cast iron.)
When hot, add the shishito peppers. (Warning: The oil can tend to splatter if it's too hot.)
Blister* one side of the peppers, turn and blister the other side. This takes about 4 minutes.
To the hot pan, add the garlic and diced piñon. Reduce the heat to low and stir until the garlic and nuts just start to brown.
Add the grated romano and heat for about 10 seconds.
Remove from heat and let rest in the skillet until the cheese has melted, gotten crispy and is lightly toasted.
Break up the cheese, garlic and nut mixture into small pieces and spread the mixture on top of the shishitos.
Serve within about 30 minutes of finishing. You want the peppers at least warm, but they don't have to be piping hot to be delicious.
Blister - Shishitos have a very thin skin. When you pan-fry them in a little oil, the skin blisters (or turns brown) and pulls away from the flesh. Because the skin is so thin, it's edible and this blistering process adds a nice flavor to the peppers. The mistake I made at the beginning was to blister the peppers too long. They became very soft and much of the moisture was cooked out. Now I leave in the pan just until both sides show some blistering as seen in the picture. The smaller ones will cook quite fast, so you can choose to remove them sooner.
Piñon - As you know I love piñon or pine nuts, but they are expensive and in some places hard to find. Pecans and almonds are good substitutes. Walnuts might be overpowering, but that's my opinion since I'm not a big walnut person.
Garlic - Adjust the amount of garlic to your liking. I am a huge garlic person, so one large garlic clove works great without overpowering the piñon or cheese.
Recipe author: MJ of MJ's Kitchen