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Zacuscă

Name: Zacuscă
Total time: 120 min
Yield: Serves 8
Cuisine: Romania
Ingredients: 3 Eggplant; 4 Red bell pepper; 2 Onion; 1 can Canned tomatoes; 2 cloves Garlic; 100ml Sunflower oil; 2 Bay leaf; 1 tsp Sugar; 1 1/2 tsp Salt; A pinch Black Pepper; To taste Bread

Side Dish

⏱ 120 min

👥 Serves 8

Difficulty ⭐

Roasted eggplant and red peppers slowly cooked down with onion and tomato — Romania's autumn preserved spread.

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📖 The Story Behind This Dish

Zacuscă is a vegetable spread made at autumn harvest by cooking roasted eggplant, peppers, onion, and tomato down for hours in a big pot and putting it up in jars. In Romanian homes, the smoky aroma of vegetables roasting in the yard is a sign of autumn. All winter it's spread on bread as a starter or snack.

🌆 Where it's eaten: On an autumn weekend in an apartment block courtyard, families gather to char piles of peppers over charcoal, peeling them and tossing them into a big pot.

🥕 Ingredients (serves 8)

Eggplant 3
Red bell pepper 4
Onion 2
Canned tomatoes 1 can
Garlic 2 cloves
Sunflower oil 100ml
Bay leaf 2
Sugar 1 tsp
Salt 1 1/2 tsp
Black Pepper A pinch
Bread To taste

👩‍🍳 Instructions

Roast the eggplant and peppers under a grill or over an open flame until the skins are completely black.
Put them in a bag while hot and steam 10 minutes, then remove the skins and seeds and chop finely.
Heat sunflower oil in a pot and sauté the chopped onion until soft.
Add the peppers, canned tomatoes, and bay leaf and simmer 20 minutes.
Add the eggplant, garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper and cook down on low for 1 hour, stirring so it doesn't burn, until the oil separates and it becomes a paste.
Let cool and spread on bread (it can also be stored in clean jars).

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