Albanian peppers, tomatoes and cheese bake (Fërgesë)

1. Char the peppers all over on a grill, over a gas flame or in a 220 °C oven, put them in a bowl, cover and peel off the skins after 10 minutes; deseed and cut into strips.

2. Peel and finely chop the tomatoes.

3. In a deep frying pan, fry the crushed garlic in the olive oil for 1 minute, add the tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes until thick, then stir in the pepper strips and both kinds of paprika.

4. Take off the heat, crumble in the curd cheese and the feta and season with pepper; go easy on the salt, as the feta is salty.

5. Pour into a clay dish or small ovenproof dish and bake in a 200 °C oven for 15-20 minutes until bubbling and browned in patches.

6. Serve hot in the dish with fresh bread for dipping – great as a light lunch on its own or alongside meat.

Tip: In Tirana it's made with a salty curd cheese called gjizë; a mix of curd cheese and feta captures its flavour very well. The meat version (fërgesë me mëlçi) also includes fried calf's liver.