Chilli is a staple in Italian cooking. I wish I had a picture to show you of my uncle Ettore who is now in his late 80s and still has a little dish of tiny scorching red chillis by every meal and just picks them up and eats them whole. It’s unreal.

This recipe isn’t quite so hardcore. I remove all of the seeds and membrane so no one’s mouth will explode. The red part of the chilli is very similar to pepper (or capsicum as the Kiwis seem to call it) but with a lovely undertone of heat to it. 

I wanted to do a stuffed chilli to show that anyone can enjoy it, even those afraid of spicy food. It’s a seriously simple side dish and certainly works with red peppers too if you’d like to stick to something a bit more sweet.

In terms of ingredients - all you need are a bunch of large red chillis, pecorino cheese, breadcrumbs and olive oil.  You need large chillis for this dish because firstly, you’d only get half a mouthful if you stuffed the little ones, and secondly, the larger the chilli, the milder it is.

The first step is to prep your chillis. Using a small sharp knife draw a line down the centre of your chilli, length ways, and then commit to it by slicing through gently. If you want to be decorative, follow all the way through the stalk.

Now using your knife, draw a line round the outside of the white membrane and pull it out along with all of the seeds. Wash the chilli to get rid of any remaining seeds.

Glug some olive oil around the base of a baking dish and lie your chilli halves in a line, skin side down. Pop under a hot grill for 15 minutes.

While your chillis are grilling, mix pecorino cheese with breadcrumbs. You want a half and half consistency here so you can really taste that strong, salty cheese but also get the crunch of the crumbs when they go back under the grill.

Take your chillis out of the oven and start to stuff them with your mixture, using a teaspoon. Pop back under the grill until browned.

Do be careful as chilli skin does blacken quickly and though the edges will char ever-so-slightly, you want to avoid serving up little canoes of coal.

These simple stuffed chillis go really well with a lovely wine vinegar tossed salad and bread, as a lovely accompaniment to a meat dish. You could also lie them over your favourite creamy pasta dish as tasty decoration.