Mediterranean Eggplant & Vegetable Stew

Mention eggplant and potatoes in the same recipe ingredient list and you have my attention. Some of my favorite ingredients! The Italian dish, “Ciambotta,” came across my radar while I was searching for ways to cook and highlight the eggplant and peppers growing in my summer garden. I love Mediterranean cuisine including Italian, Greek and Lebanese dishes. This Italian dish is a vegetable stew containing summer eggplant as well as potatoes, zucchini, onions, peppers and tomatoes. The dish gets a flavor boost from a fresh basil and oregano pesto which is added to the stew. And it is very healthy — following Mediterranean Diet guidelines — using olive oil, fresh ingredients, not much salt. It’s vegan, too! I couldn’t wait to make the dish, and put everything else aside. Success! “Mediterranean Eggplant & Vegetable Stew” turned out well — even after I took a few kitchen shortcuts from the original recipe.

Eggplant is a summer season vegetable. That’s when it ripens and the quality and prices are the best. There should be plenty available in farmers markets and grocery stores. So, now is a good time to incorporate eggplant recipes into meals. I have amassed a collection of favorite eggplant recipes over the years which I’ve shared on this blog. Some of my favorite recipes include “Aunt Gaye’s Eggplant Caponata,” “Deep South Fried Eggplant Medillians,” “Cajun Rice Dressing with Eggplant,” “Crawfish-Stuffed Eggplant Pirogues,” “Classic Greek Moussaka” and “P.F. Chang’s Oriental Sweet Chili and Garlic Eggplant.” Now, I have another great eggplant recipe!

Growing Eggplant in a Louisiana Garden

Eggplant is one vegetable which grows well in my Louisiana garden. It likes the heat — or at least can tolerate the heat. Even with my two month late gardening start, my plants are full of beautiful little purple blossoms — I am loving it. I am hopeful that they will make lots fruit (or vegetables, which is it)? I am cautiously optimistic. Eggplant grow in all sorts of shapes — globe, elongated and pear-shaped. This year, the elongated Japanese variety is doing well.

I usually plant little seedlings in the spring rather than a seed packet. Here are the eggplant on the left; they are just getting started on May 12. It is amazing how much these plants have grown in only a month on June 15. With watering, these plants can grow to be quite large. They may continue grow into fall and blossom again.

This recipe is also a great way to show off fresh herbs which are growing in my summertime garden. I am pleased this year with success in growing mint, Greek oregano, marjoram, thyme, rosemary and garlic chives. Cilantro, unfortunately, grows in cooler weather as does dill and parsley. Marjoram is on the left — it is so fragrant. And the basil (on the right) grows like a weed in the summer months. The “Basil and Oregano Pesto” which is added to the vegetable stew brings out the flavor of the summertime vegetables. Oops, I picked marjoram for the stew by mistake — it has similar, but not identical, aromatics to oregano. It is easy to confuse the two herbs as the look alike.

“Ciambotta” or “Mediterranean Eggplant & Vegetable Stew” Recipe and Ingredients

“Ciambotta” is an Italian summer vegetable stew and it comes from the southern part of that country. It basically is the Italian equivalent of French “Ratatouille” dishes. Both the spelling of this Italian vegetable stew and ingredients vary significantly. The highlight of the dish is eggplant and it also includes potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, onions and usually peppers. Since it is a stew, it should be hearty and thicker than a soup; but it is still served in a bowl — not on a plate.

My recipe is adapted from the folks at the America’s Test Kitchen and one of their specialty magazines. This organization always has stellar and unusual recipes in their publications. I narrowed down the ingredient list from their rather complicated recipe and took some shortcuts in the cooking process.

The eggplant and bell pepper ingredients are from my garden as are the basil and marjoram. The Russet potato, large Vidalia onion, garlic, canned, petite diced tomatoes and tomato paste are purchased. I didn’t add any salt to the recipe (the canned tomatoes contained some sodium) — and used the fresh herbs and garlic for flavor. (Didn’t miss the salt.) A few red pepper flakes are optional, they add a little “bite.” Many times this dish includes zucchini and fresh tomatoes — I omitted both. (Guess I wasn’t in the mood for zucchini today, but it certainly can be added to the stew.) Plus, if you don’t have access to quality fresh tomatoes, then it’s a better flavor route to use canned tomatoes in stews such as this recipe, in my opinon.

Making the Recipe — Two Steps

This recipe involves two parts — first, making the pesto and, secondly, cooking the stew. (The pesto is incorporated into the stew at the end of the cooking process.)

First make the pesto and set aside. For the pesto, remove the marjoram leaves (or you could use fresh oregano) from the stems and coursely chop the large basil leaves; chop up the large garlic clove. Add to a small food immersion blender or small food processer along with the olive oil and red pepper flakes (if using). I needed to add the olive oil to get enougth volume to chop the herbs and garlic. This is a very small recipe; it could also be chopped and mixed by hand. Set aside while you make the stew.

Next, make the stew. Anything related to vegetables involves alot of peeling, dicing and chopping. Get the ingredients ready — onion, bell pepper, eggplant and potatoes — by peeling and cutting them into chunks and bite sized pieces first. I cut the Vitalia onion and pepper into 1/2″ to 1″ pieces rather than chopping them finely as in many Cajun dishes. And, I cut the eggplant and potato into 3/4 to 1″ chunks, too. (I’m not a perfectionist, as you can see, my chunks were rather irregular in size.)

Do you need to peel the eggplant and potatoes? For this recipe, yes, I peeled both of these ingredients. Eggplant skin can be bitter and chewy and the potato skin distracted from the dish. With this hand vegetable peeler, the task was easy.

The American Test Kitchen’s recipe instructs you to saute and/or bown each ingredient individually in olive oil. This softens the ingredients and develop flavors. It is a little more effort but worth it.

First, add a little olive oil to a large, heavy pot, sauté the onions and bell pepper over low heat for about 10 minutes. I partially covered the pot with a lid, and stirred occasionally. Don’t let the onions brown or burn. Then transfer these ingredients to a bowl.

Next, add a little more olive oil and brown the eggplant and potatoes until the potatoes begin to brown and the eggplant starts to soften. Let them cook for about 5 minutes, turn over and cook longer. Oops, next time I’ll, divide this into smaller batches.

Move the eggplant and potatoes to one side. Add a little more olive oil and the tomato paste to the bottom of the pot in the olive oil.

Let the tomato paste “fry” and brown in the olive oil, about 2 minutes until “fond” develops on the bottom of the pot. This deepens, caramelizes and darkens the flavor significantly and makes it easier to mix the tomato paste into the stew. The culinary term, “fond,” was a new one to me. It is browned bits of food that stick to the bottom of a pan after searing the vegetables. The word “fond” is French for “base” and these bits add flavor to the stew. Well, America’s Test Kitchen, I learned something new today!

Then, add the onions and bell pepper back to the pot along with petite, diced tomatoes and water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and simmer for one hour. Yes, this stew cooks along time. The vegetables should be cooked throughout and soft. Some of the eggplant will probably turn to mush and thicken the dish; that’s okay.

The original recipe instructed you to heat olive oil over medium heat in a small skillet and cook the pesto until it is fragrant and the garlic browns — don’t let it burn. This took about 30 seconds. Add the pesto to the stew and stir. This makes sense. If you add fresh herbs too early to the pot, they lose their pungent flavor as the stew cooks.

The Italian stew is finished! Serve the Ciambotta as a side dish or a main dish entree. Braised Italian sausage would make a tasty pairing. Sometimes this dish is served with pasta. Always, it needs Italian bread for dipping. And the leftovers make a flavorful meal the next day.

This is a delicious stew. I like the idea that it is totally vegan (no chicken broth, chicken, shrimp or meat in the recipe) and the flavor is so great. I love eggplant and potatoes. The other ingredients (tomatoes, peppers and onions) help the dish shine, too. I will be making this recipe again!