07/05/2021

Roasted Pepper, Salami & Cheese Scones

Name: Roasted Pepper, Salami & Cheese Scones
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 450 g self raising flour (plus extra for rolling out); 2 level tsp baking powder; ½ tsp salt; ¼ tsp black pepper; 50 g butter; 130 g mature cheddar cheese, grated (divided 100g / 30g); 30 g Parmesan cheese, grated; 1 roasted red pepper from a jar (drained and chopped); 1 roasted yellow pepper from a jar (drained and chopped); 50 g salami (cut into small pieces); 6 large sun-dried tomatoes in oil (drained and chopped); 1 large handful basil leaves (roughly chopped); 220-250 ml milk, yogurt, buttermilk or any combination of these

Roasted Pepper, Salami & Cheese Scones are my latest take on the classic cheese scone.

Inspired by the flavours of Italy, these savoury scones are studded with roasted red and yellow peppers, nuggets of sun-dried tomato, garlicky salami, fresh basil and, of course, plenty of cheese.

Like all scones, these are perfect served warm slathered in butter. Or try them, sandwich-style, filled with more cheese then heated until it melts.

Roasted Pepper, Salami & Cheese Scones are great cold for picnics and lunchboxes too.

Jump to Recipe

My Very Cheesy Cheese Scones continue to be one of my most popular recipes. Full of cheesy flavour, the light and fluffy scones are so quick and easy to make. So it’s really not surprising that many of you seem to love them just as much as I do.

But, for a change, I do sometimes like to tweak them a bit. My Cheese & Ham Scones with Wild Garlic, created when I’d foraged some of the lovely leaves, are a good example of that.

And I have a sneaking suspicion that my latest savoury scone recipe will go down pretty well too.

ROASTED PEPPER, SALAMI & CHEESE SCONES

For a number of years now, I’ve been making a bread with Italian flavours similar to those you’ll find in my Roasted Pepper, Salami & Cheese Scones. I call it Picnic Bread as the flavours feel so Summery and speak to me of warm days eating outside.

But, as much as I love baking bread, it does take a fair bit of preparation and planning ahead. Which is exactly the opposite of making scones.

Whether it’s savoury scones or Classic Sultana Scones, you’re going to be done and dusted in 30-40 minutes at most.

And, despite the range of tasty ingredients packed inside, my Roasted Pepper, Salami & Cheese Scones are really no different.

ITALIAN FLAVOURS

With speed in mind, I’ve used roasted peppers from a jar for this recipe. I like a mix of red and yellow, not just for flavour, but because of the vibrant multicolours they bring to the finished scones. But use just red ones if that’s what you have.

I’ve included sun-dried tomatoes in the scones too as I love the slightly smoky tone they bring. If you don’t like them then use more roasted pepper instead.

Helping along the rich flavours is salami. Fennel salami or Milano salami is good and I like ones with a good garlic kick too.

Finally, for savoury scones inspired by Italian flavours, there just had to be fresh basil.

For the cheese, I’ve used a combination of Parmesan and mature Cheddar.

While the Parmesan brings salty intensity, I think a good amount of Cheddar is the backbone of any cheese scone worth the name.

As the making of the scones goes pretty quickly, I suggest you prep your ingredients first.

Simply drain as much oil as you can from the roasted peppers and sun-dried tomatoes then chop them up. Cut the salami into little squares, grate the cheese and roughly chop the basil.

MAKING THE DOUGH

Even if you’ve never made scones before, I think you’ll find the dough dead easy. Full instructions are given in the detailed recipe card at the end of this post, but here’s the basics.

I use a combination of self-raising flour and baking powder to get a good rise on my scones. These are sifted with salt and black pepper before a little butter is rubbed in.

Next, you simply mix in all the lovely colourful vegetables, the salami, basil, and most of the cheese.

Because the vegetables have been packed in oil, and salami has considerable fat, the ingredients do tend to stick together. I just go in with my hands to break up any clumps and make sure everything’s evenly distributed throughout the flour.

To bring the dough together, you have a choice of liquids.

I most often use yogurt in my scones. I always have a batch of Homemade Instant Pot Yogurt in the fridge and it does make them nice and fluffy. But I happened to have some spare milk so used that for the ones you see in this post. You could also use buttermilk or any combination of milk, yogurt and buttermilk.

Try not to make things too wet. Only add as much liquid as you need to bring everything together into a soft dough.

ROLLING & CUTTING OUT

To get a decent height to your scones, roll out the dough to a thickness no less than 2-3 cm.

Using a 7cm cutter, you should get 12 Roasted Pepper, Salami & Cheese Scones if you rolled the dough 2cm thick, and a couple less if you rolled it thicker.

Before they go into the oven, I like to brush the tops of the scones with some of the leftover milk and sprinkle with a little reserved cheese.

BAKING & SERVING

The scones will only take 12-15 minutes to bake in a preheated oven. So don’t go wandering off or they will burn.

When done, they should be risen and deep golden brown all over.

The smell of roasted pepper, cheese and basil will be heavenly.

But leave the scones on a wire rack to cool and set a little before tearing open (cutting with a knife ruins their fluffy texture).

In my view all British style scones, even these with Italian inspired flavours, cry out for lots of lovely butter.

I think the combination of the creamy butter with the basil, the concentrated flavour of the summery vegetables and the salami is a great one. And then you get that background flavour of a wonderful cheese scone. Perfect!

But you don’t have to just stick with butter.

On a whim, I made a sort of scone sandwich with some of the leftover salami plus a slice of sheep’s cheese.

I loved this too and, although I didn’t photograph it (damn!), it was even nicer popped in the microwave for 30 seconds until the cheese started oozing down the sides.

Which was a lesson to me, who’s been making and eating scones for over thirty years, that scones can be so much more than part of a traditional afternoon tea.

I hope you’ll try my Roasted Pepper, Salami & Cheese Scones and love them as much as I do.

Whatever your thoughts, leave a comment below and don’t forget to rate the recipe!