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Italian Recipe

Ciambotta Lucana

Basilicata’s summer vegetable stew: peppers, eggplant, potatoes, and tomatoes cooked separately, then married. The garden in one pot, without the mush.

Basilicata’s summer vegetable stew: peppers, eggplant, potatoes, and tomatoes cooked separately, then married. The garden in one pot, without the mush.

30 min Prep Time
55 min Cook Time
6 Servings
easy

Instructions

  1. Salt the eggplant chunks 30 minutes; rinse and dry. Meanwhile prep the rest.

    32 min

  2. In a wide pot, fry the potatoes in a third of the oil until golden at the edges and nearly tender; lift out.

    12 min

  3. Fry the peppers in the same pot until blistered and floppy; lift out. Then the eggplant in the remaining oil until bronzed.

    15 min

  4. Soften the onion and garlic with the chile in the residue, add the tomatoes, season, and simmer 10 minutes to a loose sauce.

    12 min

  5. Return everything, fold once, and stew gently, uncovered, until the flavors agree but the pieces still answer to their names, 12 to 15 minutes.

    15 min

  6. Rest off the heat 10 minutes, tear in the basil, and adjust salt. Serve warm or at room temperature with serious bread.

Chef's Tips

  • Separate frying is the whole secret: One-pot-from-the-start ciambotta turns to a single beige flavor. Five extra minutes of staging keeps five vegetables distinct.
  • Oil is an ingredient: This is a dish that uses oil the way the north uses butter. Skimp and the vegetables stew gray; spend and they shine.
  • The farmhouse breakfast move: a ladle of yesterday’s ciambotta reheated in a pan with two eggs cracked in. Lucanian brunch, centuries before the word.

Nutrition Facts

Calories
322.07
Protein
4.74g
Carbohydrates
31.65g
Fat
20.67g
Fiber
7.69g

Per serving

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