Got Roasted Peppers? Here's an Easy Summer Spread

For years, it seems, we've been reading about muhammara, a Middle Eastern dip made from roasted red peppers, walnuts, breadcrumbs, and pomegranate molasses. Though intrigued, we couldn't get our minds around how those flavors would add up, and in any case, we never seemed to have them all on hand at the same time.

But a few weeks ago we had a few leftover roasted peppers, as well as a rarely deployed bottle of pomegranate glaze from Trader Joe's, so we decided to try making the spread, using a recipe from Saveur.

It was easy and fast—requiring only a food processor—but we ignored Saveur's advice to let it sit overnight before we tried it, and we found the immediate results disappointing: the dip just tasted like mealy mushed peppers.

We should have listened to Saveur. When we tried the muhammara the next evening, we could no longer pick out peppers or nuts or pomegranate; the flavors had melded into something special. We spread it thickly on toasted pita bread and ate it for dinner with a green salad.

Lesson: No matter how much of a hurry you're in to taste something, sometimes you just have to wait for the magic to happen.