Romanian Zacusca

Submitted by Callu

"A traditional vegetable spread found in Romania (probably in other neighboring countries as well). It is delicious on crust bread or even as a topping on rice for a quickie vegetarian meal. It is also excellent as a sandwich spread. This recipe is for a large batch intended for canning. You can cut it back if you want a smaller batch for immediate consumption."

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 7
• Yields: 10-12 jars

ingredients

• 8 lbs fresh eggplants
• 6 lbs red peppers
• 2 lbs onions
• 2 teaspoons salt (to taste)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cups tomato paste
• 2 cups olive oil

directions

1. Over an open flame (gas stove or grill) completely blacken the skins of the eggplants and peppers.
2. Peel skins off immediately. Easiest way to get the last bits off is to do it under a slow running faucet.
3. Puree each of the three vegetables separately in a food processor. And place each in a separate bowl when you are finished.
4. Place oil and onion in a large pot.
5. Saute onions for about 4 minutes over medium-low heat.
6. Add eggplant, onion, salt and pepper.
7. Cook until a thin layer of oil remains on top and when a spoonful of zacusca is removed, only the oil should run off the spoon, not the zacusca.
8. Taste and adjust salt and pepper to meet your tastes.
9. Spoon mixture into sterilized jars of your choosing. It is easiest if they are all the same size.
10. Wipe rims clean and place clean lids and rings on jars.
11. Place into a single layer in large pot (water bath canner if you have one).
12. Fill pot with water up to the necks of the jars. Bring to a boil and boil for 20 minutes.
13. Remove from heat and allow to cool in water bath.
14. When cool remove from water and you are ready to go. If oil separates just mix it back in when ready to serve.
15. NOTE: My original Romanian recipe calls for a full Liter of oil but results in a much heavier and oilier zacusca. I cut mine back substantially from the original.

Reviews

[CoastalCohort]

****One word of caution, I would make the waterbath canning process more accurate by completely covering the jars by 2 inches of water during the water bath process. That's the saftest method of water bath canning.*****<br/><br/>Although the recipe is a bit hard to follow and missing a few steps, I managed to figure it out and boy am I glad I did! This is delicious! I couldn't stop licking the spoon. :-)<br/>To complete the directions, once you soften the opnions in the oil, add everything else in, including the tomato paste. They forgot to write that. I also left the onions in chopped form and choose not to puree them as I like some texture.<br/>This recipe will be delicious in pasta, layered with roasted vegetables, as a dip, on crusty bread. This recipe made 11 pints.

 

[Raluca D.]

In my opinion, some of your directions could be improved. First of all, flame grilling the aubergines and peppers adds all that flavour that our zacusca is famous for. Of course, a lot of Romanian households use the oven method, but that doesn't make it right. Also, the cooking time is no way that short. If you can make a zacusca from scratch in 2 hours, you probably did something wrong. And I have to agree with what one of the other users did by finely chopping everything rather than putting them through the food processor.

 

[elefantegps]

Thank you for the recipe Callu. I made this recipe but I just chopped the vegetables instead of passing then through a food processor and also added a little bit of white vinegar and some bay leaves.

 

[littlemafia]

I've made it with whole peppercorns too and I sometimes add white beans, which I like coz it makes the zacusca sweeter.

 

[888370]

From: carla, (chicago) i had the recipe sitting on my desk top from the first time dr. Bonta brought in this tastie delight. It truly made my taste buds sing. The reason it sat so long on my computer at work was because, the recipe seemed so intemidating, but after missing my favorite doctor and her fresh bread and "zacusca, I decided to tackle it for the first time, because callu makes it seem so easy and it sounds just like my romanian, dr. Bonta's recipe with some variations.