Zacusca

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 1 kg bell pepper(s) (pointed peppers, ideally Capia)
• 1 eggplant(s) (aubergine)
• 300 g onion(s)
• 200 g carrot(s)
• 800 g tomatoes, pureed
• ¼ liter of oil (sunflower oil)
• 5 bay leaves
• Salt
• pepper
• Sugar

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Rest period approx. 1 day; Cooking/baking time approx. 8 hours; Total time approx. 1 day 9 hours 30 minutes

Romanian spread

Roast the peppers in the oven under the hot grill until the skin is slightly blackened and the surface appears wrinkled. Turn if necessary. Remove and then let cool. Now grill the eggplant in the same way until soft or the skin cracks slightly. Then halve and remove the skin. Place the eggplant halves on a slanted (cutting) board so that the bitter liquid can drain away. Peel the cooled peppers (ideally by hand so that the resulting juice is not lost), remove the seeds and set aside along with the juice. Then roughly chop them. It is important to retain the juice. Peel the onion and cut it into half slices. Sweat over an open heat in plenty of oil until lightly browned. Peel the carrots, finely chop them, and add them to the pan, then simmer for about 30 minutes. If necessary, you can add the reserved pepper juice to prevent the mixture from burning. Then add the bell peppers, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Stir thoroughly and season to taste. Season to taste if desired (season carefully, as the mixture will continue to reduce). After another 30 minutes, add the passata and thicken well with the mixture. Carefully add the sugar and season several times to taste (the sugar only serves to neutralize the acidity of the tomatoes). Roughly chop the eggplant (slightly finer at the stem) and add. Simmer for another 30 minutes. The mixture must not burn at any time; add more oil if necessary. Simmer over an open fire for about 30 minutes. Then braise in a preheated oven at 200°C (convection oven). Check and stir every 30-45 minutes. Reduce in the oven for a total of 4-5 hours until the mixture takes on a slightly thicker consistency. Then bottle it for preservation, e.g.: Pour the hot mixture into boiling hot preserving jars, seal, and turn out. Let cool for 1 day and then store in the refrigerator. Tip: You can also use other ingredients, such as mushrooms, celery, and beans. Eggplants are the easiest to eliminate from the list. Peeling and deseeding the peppers is extremely time-consuming – having somewhere to sit and company, or sharing the work, is recommended. The quantities given are household quantities; in practice, the recipe uses 5 to 10 times the amount (!), which yields approximately 7-8 kg of spread.