A Peck Of Peppers

James went over to bring a jar of jam to our neighbors and came back with a huge bag of peppers. Our neighbor is an amazing and prolific gardener, and a very generous one.
Looking into that bag I heard one thing -- piperade.
Piperade is a Basque dish of sautéed peppers flavored with ham and spiked with Piment d'Espelette the beloved spicy pepper (used dried) cultivated in the Basque region of Southern France. Piperade is traditionally flavored with Bayonne ham, a dried pork product (like prosciutto) often flavored with the same spicy paprika. Not quite traditional, for ours instead of substituting prosciutto I went for rich flavorful Spanish chorizo which I sautéed in olive oil to start the dish. Then I added in 2 sliced onions, 4 minced cloves of garlic, 1 bay leaf, about 6 sprigs of thyme and a healthy sprinkle of Piment d'Espelette over medium heat. When the onions were very soft I added in  thinly sliced green peppers and red peppers, 3 each. I covered the pan, turned down the heat and let the peppers soften. After about 10 minutes I added 2 large handfuls of cherry tomatoes sliced in half. Now when Julia Child made her piperade she peeled and seeded fresh tomatoes to add to the flavorful sauce. The last thing I feel like doing on a bright summer day is boiling water and peeling tomatoes so I tossed in the cherries, covered the pan and let them soften for another couple minutes. Though Julia served her piperade over lovely roasted or poached chicken to make ours a meal I added a couple eggs into the broth and covered the pan for just a couple minutes until they were set.
Poached eggs with piperade a summery dish to celebrate our local peppers.