As a vegan/vegetarian, I sometimes think that all I need is high quality fresh vegetables, olive oil, salt and pepper, and a good sauté pan.  Plus bread and wine.

The other night, it was late and I wanted to do something delicious and not too complicated.   Here is the step-by-step story of what came out.

Cut up 1/2 small onion into large dice.  Do the same with one large carrot and one zucchine (remember, this is just for me).  Add Portuguese olive oil (extra virgin always) to a sauté pan and cook until almost tender.

diced onion, carrot, and zucchine

Add fresh peas, chopped Italian parsley, dried oregano, salt and pepper, and chopped garlic.  Continue to sauté until slightly browned.

add peas and herbs

Take some thinly-sliced radicchio, add to the pan, and cook another few minutes.  Then add a few slices of pickled banana peppers (from Portuguese market in this case).   Stir to brown a little more and combine.

In the meantime, since you already had some radicchio in the refrigerator, I will assume there was 1/2 a head of frisée there, too.   Cut that up into 1/2″ wide strips, and sauté it until crispy/tender in a separate pan.  Or you can move the vegetables to a plate and use the original pan, if you wish.  Then add the cooked frisée to serving bowl, atop the other vegetables.

Slice some some homemade whole grain bread, and fry/toast the slices in olive oil in the already-used sauté pan.   Plate the vegetables with the bread, and pick your wine.  In this case I chose an Alvarinho Vinho Verde from the same Portuguese supplier, the Portugalia store in Fall River, MA, a short drive from Providence, RI.

Great, colorful, simple meal, Portuguese theme, but you can adapt the recipe to any style you like, using any vegetables available.