Calabria / Cosenza
Ciambotta Calabrese
Italian summer vegetable stew with peppers and potato
This is a summer vegetable stew: peppers, eggplant, potato and tomato cooked in one pan in olive oil until they collapse into each other.
Tested and written by Erika A. Cochran
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Prep
20 minutes
Cook
45 minutes
Serves
4
Difficulty
Easy
Region
Calabria
What you’ll need
Ingredients
Written for 4.
Showing quantities at 1× the original recipe.
- 5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, sliced
- 14 oz potatoes, cut into ¾ inch pieces (about 2–3 medium potatoes)
- 2 eggplants, cut into 1⅛ inches pieces
- 3 sweet peppers, cut into wide strips
- 14 oz ripe tomatoes, chopped (about 3–4 medium tomatoes)
- 1 dried Calabrian chilli (optional)
- A handful of basil
- Sea salt
At the stove
Instructions
Warm 3 tbsp oil in a wide, heavy pan and fry the potatoes over medium heat for 10 minutes until they take colour at the edges. Lift them out.
Add the remaining oil and the eggplant and cook for 8 minutes until softened, then add the peppers and onion and cook for another 8 minutes.
Return the potatoes to the pan, add the tomatoes, chilli, and a good pinch of salt.
Cover and cook over low heat for 20–25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until everything is tender and bound together by the tomato.
Uncover and cook for a few more minutes if the pan looks watery. Tear in the basil off the heat.
Serve warm or at room temperature, with bread.
Recipe notes
Cooking the vegetables in stages keeps each one recognisable in the finished pan.
Better on the second day, when the flavours settle.
Context
Ciambotta belongs to the wider family of southern Italian vegetable stews, cooked in Calabria, Basilicata, and Campania with whatever the late summer garden produced.
Sources: Editorial adaptation of documented southern Italian regional cooking, Casa Magnelli Kitchen
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