Within this simple preparation resides the essence of rustic Italian cooking: startlingly fresh ingredients, simply paired and quickly put together. It has color, an easy style, incredible flavor and a wonderful history. If you make no other recipe from this book make this one — you will be astonished at just how good it is. Include lots of earthy, rustic country-style bread alongside to mop up the juices.

Don’t choose overly huge peppers for this dish. While yellow or orange peppers can be used, green peppers just don’t have the requisite depth of flavor. In Piedmont they seem to have a penchant for stuffing. Besides peppers, they stuff onions with a sweet and savory filling that includes raisins, cheese and eggs. Mushrooms are filled with their own chopped stems combined with parsley, onions, anchovies and bread crumbs. Perhaps best of all, fresh peach halves are treated to a heavenly filling of crushed macaroons blended with egg, butter and sugar before being baked.