Penne with smoked mackerel and chargrilled peppers

A summer warmer, if that's possible. Serves two, suitably equipped with a bottle of rosé.

2 smoked mackerel fillets (the unpeppered ones work best), skinned and chopped into big chunks
1 brown onion, sliced
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 tsp capers, chopped
handful of fresh basil leaves, torn up
1 garlic clove, bruised
Olive oil
1 tsp light muscovado sugar

160g penne pasta

For the chargrilled peppers
2 bell peppers, opened out, flattened and torn into strips
1 tbs groundnut oil
Maldon sea salt
pinch of cut, dried lemon grass
juice of half a lemon
olive oil
sprig of rosemary

First, put a cast iron griddle on a high heat. Rub the strips of bell pepper with groundnut oil, salt and cut lemon grass. When the pan's really hot, lay the strips inside-face down and grill for a couple of minutes, until nice charred stripes have appeared. Turn the peppers over and grill the outer skin side for just a minute. When they're done, chop roughly into inch squares, and transfer to a bowl with some olive oil, lemon juice and the rosemary. Mix well and leave to one side.

Heat a big lug of olive oil in a pan with the bruised garlic clove. When the garlic's turned golden, discard it. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until just starting to colour (you can add a splash of white wine vinegar at this stage, and cook for another half minute, depending on the acidity of your lemons and any salad dressing you might be using). Add the tomatos and muscovado sugar, and cook covered for a few minutes. Uncover, add the capers, and reduce for a few more minutes. When it's thickened nicely, turn the heat down a bit, and add the peppers (with as much of the oil and lemon as you like - but discard the rosemary sprig), mackerel and basil. Mix together well and cover for about half a minute.

At the same time, get a big pan of salted water to the boil and cook the penne according to the pack instructions. Drain, add a splash of olive oil and salt, toss, then put on the plate with whatever salad you like. Any liquid left, add to the sauce.

Spoon the mackerel and pepper mixture on top of the drained pasta. Garnish with some spring onion chopped diagonally if you like.