Bulgarian ratatouille
Based on my grandmother’s recipe
Ingredients:
1 kg potatoes
1 onion
2 tomatoes
2-3 red peppers
1 cup peas (frozen or canned)
1 cup fresh okra
1 cup green beans
Paprika and black pepper
Salt to taste
50 ml of sunflower oil
Fresh parsley
Dried savory
Preparation:
Chop the onion finely. In a saucepan, heat the oil and sauté the onion briefly. Sprinkle with sweet paprika, stir and remove promptly from heat as the paprika burns fast.
Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables. Blanch the okra for 5 minutes in salted water. Cut the green beans into pieces of 3-4 cm, tomatoes into cubes, peppers (previously roasted, peeled and seeded) into chunks. Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes or half-moons of medium size.
Combine all vegetables in a large and deep enough earthenware dish. Season with pepper, paprika, savory, chopped parsley. Sprinkle abundantly with oil. Add the okra (drained) and onions. Pour ½ cup of water. Add salt to taste.
Bake the dish at 200°C and cook covered for about 1 hour, then uncover and continue cooking until vegetables are golden and the juice reduced to fat. Do not hesitate to extend the cooking time to 60-80 minutes, especially if the amount is large or a lot of juice came out of the vegetables.
Serve the Bulgarian ratatouille warm or cold, sprinkled with fresh parsley.