Rachel Roddy’s recipe for red peppers stuffed with orzo, tuna, capers and herbs | A kitchen in Rome
Just beyond the hard rush of Viale Marconi, in the quieter Via Gerolamo Cardano, is a popular bakery called Albanesi il forno delle meraviglie, meaning “the oven [or bakery] of wonders”.Established in 1959 by Aldo Albanesi, and now run by his sons Adriano and Alessandro, Albanesi is wondrous also for its size.Behind an 11-window shopfront lies almost 500 sq m of shop floor, and a small maze of laboratories in which almost everything that can be made is made: bread, pizza, pies, cakes, biscuits, fresh egg pasta, sauces, baked pasta and other dishes that are ready to eat.The snake of glass-fronted counters also hold cheese, other dairy products, cured meats, and vegetables and olives preserved in various ways, while the shelves are packed with everyday provisions of good and practical quality.This is a shop with something for everyone.
It also sells acini di pepe, a tiny pasta shaped like peppercorns and made of durum wheat, and pastina, another small pasta used mostly in soups or for stuffing into vegetables.Acini di pepe was the reason we first visited the shop six years ago, on the recommendation of a colleague, and at a time when I was writing a book about pasta and therefore trying to get my hands on as many shapes as possible.On that first visit I bought stelline (stars), alfabeto, puntine (dots) and risoni, of course, which is pretty much the same shape as orzo, only not called orzo in Italy, because that word means “barley”.I am repeating myself, I know, when I say that bags of pastina are the most satisfying bags of pasta to take from the shelf and move around in your hand, because they slide in much the same way as a beanbag does when it meets a bum.I also like measuring out small pasta shapes, raining them into the scale or, if you are sure enough, straight into a pan of boiling water.
To make this week’s recipe, you need 300g of any small pasta shape (peppercorns, stars, letters, points, orzo) to fill eight red pepper boats,You also need to par-cook the pasta for half the recommended cooking time, then drain very well and spread out, if possible: you don’t want it to continue cooking, because it has to spend another 40 minutes in the oven,The peppers can be eaten straight away, but they’ll sit happily for hours, days even; just keep them in the fridge if the wait is longer than a few hours, and remember to take them out in advance,They are wondrous eaten at room temperature (or quickly reheated), especially after a long day,Serves 44 medium red or/and yellow peppers, all even in size300g orzo, or other very small pasta shapeExtra-virgin olive oil Butter1 red onion, peeled and diced1 garlic clove, peeled and minced1 handful fresh parsley, minced1 medium-sized tomato, or several cherry tomatoes, finely chopped100g tuna packed in olive oil, drained1 heaped tbsp small capers2 anchovy fillets, mincedCut the peppers in half lengthways through the stalks, scrape out the seeds and trim away any white pith inside.
Boil the orzo in salted water for a half the recommended cooking time (if it suggests, say, 10 minutes, cook it for only five), then drain well.Working in a frying pan, warm a few tablespoons of olive oil and a bit of butter, then fry the onion and garlic until soft.Add the par-cooked orzo, parsley, tomato, tuna, capers and anchovies, then taste and season with salt as needed (it probably won’t need much) and generously with black pepper.Fill the pepper boats almost to the brim with the orzo mixture and arrange them snugly in a suitable baking tray.Spoon three tablespoons of water and three tablespoons of oil into the bottom of the trat, cover loosely but completely with foil, and bake at 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4 for 40 minutes, removing the foil for the last 10 minutes.
Before serving, finish by zigzagging each pepper with a bit of olive oil, or spooning over some melted butter and anchovies, or thinning some basil pesto with extra-virgin olive oil, spooning that over the peppers and topping each half-pepper with a basil leaf.This article was amended on 9 October 2025 to include the oven temperature.
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