Red Peppers and Mushrooms Spread
I'm presenting you a more special "zacusca" - a vegetable spread popular in Romania - made with mushrooms and without the eggplant, but with a lot of fatty red pepper. It's very tasty. I made this zacusca with such pleasure. I created the entire recipe by myself, doing what I thought would get me the tastiest result, and I was right.
I would recommend preparing the recipe in several steps or on different days. Roast the peppers and the mushrooms on the first day. On the next one, combine the ingredients, boil the "zacusca" and sterilize it. During all this time, keep the ingredients cold.
There's also an Easy Vegetables Spread Recipe, which is very good, but I'd say this one is a premium recipe.
Roast the peppers on the grill (or in the oven), peel and seed.
I made them two days before and kept in the fridge until I bought and prepared the rest of the ingredients.
Wash the mushrooms thoroughly, cut into 2-3 pieces, if they are bigger, and place in a large oven sheet. Sprinkle with a little oil and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes. In the meantime, stir two or three times, to brown evenly.
I baked them in two batches, one after the other.
That's what they should look like. I keep them in the oven until the water drops completely and the mushrooms brown nicely.
Finely chop the onion in the food processor.
You can also pass it through the meat grinder.
I cut the tomatoes into 3-4 pieces.
And I chopped them in the food processor.
In a large Dutch oven (mine is 15 liters), heat the oil well. Add the onion and stir periodically until it starts to brown.
Add the chopped tomatoes, mix well and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring regularly.
Chop the mushrooms in the food processor and add them to the pot, stir.
Right after the mushrooms, put the roasted peppers, chopped in the food processor.
Mix well. When it reaches a full boil, turn the heat to low and let simmer.
Stir occasionally. Cook over heat for at least 3-4 hours.
This is what it looks like after boiling. It's softer, smooth, with a different taste and color.
Season with salt, add bay leaves and peppercorns.
I put the leaves an hour before it was done and removed them when I poured the zacusca into jars.
I didn't put peppercorns, because Sofia gets a little upset when she sees them in the food :)
Wash and dry the jars. I keep them in the oven for 30 minutes at 100 degrees C.
Fill the jars with zacusca, leaving about 1 cm headspace.
Seal the lids tightly and put the jars in the oven to sterilize at 150 degrees C for 30 minutes.
Turn on the oven only when you put the jars in, don't preheat it.
Then let cool and store in the pantry. I don't have a cellar so I keep them in the closet and they are fine.
Come and have a slice of bread spread with fragrant and delicious zacusca!
Enjoy!
