Ciambotta Recipe

Today I am sharing with you my Ciambotta recipe! Growing up, Ciambotta, or simply a vegetable stew, was a regular dish we would have once our farm was producing enough vegetables. Many years later, I still love recreating this dish using the fresh produce from my own garden and including other vegetables I get from the local farmers market.

Ingredients

•     2 Eggplants ends removed and cubed

•     2 Zucchini ends removed and cubed

•     3 Sweet bell peppers stem and seeds removed, cubed

•     5 Plum tomatoes skin and seed removed, cubed

•     5 Golden Yukon potatoes cubed

•     1 Italian Long Hot Pepper optional

•     1 Yellow onion cubed

•     3 Garlic cloves diced

•     Handful of basil leaves

•     Extra Virgin Olive Oil

•     Sea salt to taste

•     Black pepper to taste

Instructions

1.     Begin by preparing the tomatoes. I boil them for a couple of minutes, until I see the skin start to crack. I then remove from boiling water and let them cool down a bit. Once they are cool enough to touch, I can easily peel off the skin. Cut in half, remove the seeds and then continue to cut into cubes.

2.     In a deep dutch oven, heat up about four ounces of olive oil over a medium/high flame. Once it is hot, add in the garlic and onion. Stir for about a minute and then add in the tomatoes, bell peppers, hot pepper, zucchini, potatoes and eggplant. Cook for about ten minutes, occasionally stirring to cook all of the vegetables equally.

3.     Sprinkle in some sea salt and black pepper, to taste, and rip up a few basil leaves to add into the dutch oven. Stir together and then lower the flame/heat to medium and place the cover over the dutch oven. let cook for about 40 minutes, making sure to occasionally stir together to cook evenly.

4.     At this point, I like to toast a few slices of bread, drizzled with olive oil, in the oven at 400°F for about five minutes or until golden.

5.    Remove the bread from the oven and remove the ciambotta from the stove top. Scoop some of the ciambotta into a bowl and serve with a side of toasted bread. Salute and cin cin!