Grille Halibut and Cornetta Peppers with Walnut and Pomegranate Sauce

Photo by Michael Piazza / Styled by Catrine Kelty

If you live near Needham, chances are you’re familiar with Volante Farms. After four generations, it has become a beloved community institution. Every fall, you’ll find cornetta peppers proudly displayed in the vegetable bins at the farm stand. And if you’re a keen gardener, you can even pick up a seedling or two from the farm’s plant shed in the spring.

These slender, bright red peppers are ideal for grilling. Their thin skins and exceptional sweetness set them apart. Because the skins are so delicate, there’s no need to peel them after grilling or roasting—they become meltingly tender and silky over the fire.

The cornetta pepper has a special place in the history of Volante Farms. Ferdinand Volante originally brought the seeds from Italy and made it his annual tradition to save them. Every fall, he would carefully harvest, seed and preserve two bushels of fully ripened cornetta peppers. Once the seeds had been collected, Ferdinand would grill the peppers and bring them to his staff, still warm and glistening with olive oil, on crisp autumn mornings before the farm stand opened. More often than not, he’d simply lean out the window of his pickup truck, waving foil-wrapped packets to anyone he spotted.

Since Ferdinand’s passing, one of the farm’s longtime field crew members has carried on the painstaking task of cutting, coring, cleaning and deseeding the peppers to ensure the farm has plenty of seed for the following year’s crop.

If you can’t make it to Volante Farms, don’t worry. A remarkably similar variety, the Jimmy Nardello pepper, can be found at many local farmers markets (and some grocery stores) in the fall. It offers the same thin skin, sweet flavor and wonderful grilling qualities that make the cornetta such a seasonal favorite.

Serves 4–6

½ cup walnuts, toasted and finely chopped
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons for fish and peppers
¼ cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 scallions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and freshly ground pepper
¾ pound cornetto or Jimmy Nardello peppers, about 6 peppers
4 (6–8-ounce) skin-on halibut fillets, 1 to 1½ inches thick
1 lemon, cut into wedges for serving

Build your fire using a log cabin method. Start with six logs and let them burn until the wood has broken down into white-hot coals covered with a layer of ash. Once most of the logs have carbonized into large embers, spread the coals evenly across the fire pit. Throughout the cook, maintain a medium-hot fire by raking fresh coals from the burning logs into the cooking area and replenishing the fire with additional wood as needed.

Stir together the walnuts, olive oil, parsley, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, scallions and garlic in a medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Toss peppers with 1 tablespoon oil and season with salt and pepper. Pat halibut dry with paper towels, brush with 2 tablespoons of oil, and season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Grill peppers and halibut together on the grill grate. Turn the peppers occasionally until charred on all sides, and flip the halibut with a metal spatula halfway through, about 7 minutes per side for the fish and about 8–10 minutes total for the peppers.

Transfer halibut to a serving platter and peppers to a cutting board. Remove the stem tops and any seeds from the top of the pepper and discard (don’t worry about getting all the seeds). Chop the peppers and toss in the bowl with the pomegranate dressing; season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon the pepper sauce over the halibut fillets and serve with lemon wedges.

This recipe appeared in the Fall 2026 issue as part of a larger story, Fire Season: A Fall Gathering.