Zacuscă is a vegetable spread for winter, one of the best loved in Moldova and Romania. The base is roasted eggplant and red bell pepper, with onion, carrot and tomato added. Everything is cooked for a long time until it thickens, nearly like a pâté, and packed into jars. In winter you open a jar, spread the zacuscă on bread and the taste of summer comes back.

Which vegetables you need

Classic zacuscă has eggplants, red bell peppers, onions, carrots and tomatoes. Choose dark, firm eggplants with smooth glossy skin and a green stalk. Choose fleshy red peppers: they give sweetness and colour.

Zacuscă is made at the end of summer and in autumn, when the vegetables are ripe and cheap. Two or three batches a season cover the whole winter stock. What vegetables look like in the shops today:

In the catalogues now: vegetables

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Roasting the vegetables

Eggplants and peppers are roasted whole, uncut. Heat the oven to 220 degrees, lay the vegetables on a tray and roast for about forty minutes, turning them. The skin should blacken and blister. You can also roast the vegetables on a grill or over an open flame, and then the spread gets a faint smoky taste.

Move the hot vegetables to a pot or a bag and cover for fifteen minutes. The steam makes the skin come off easily. Peel with your hands over a bowl so you do not lose the juice, and remove the seeds from the peppers.

The eggplants: bitterness and chopping

Leave the peeled eggplants in a colander for half an hour: the bitter juice drains away. Do not squeeze them hard, otherwise the spread turns dry. Then chop finely with a knife. Do not use a blender: it turns the vegetables into a purée, and real zacuscă should have pieces.

Chop the peppers just as finely. Choose the size of the pieces to taste: some people like the spread almost smooth, others with visible pieces.

The vegetables in the pan

Chop the onion finely and fry it in half the oil on medium heat for ten minutes until soft. Add the carrot grated on the coarse side and fry another ten minutes. The vegetables should be soft but not brown.

Grate the tomatoes, discarding the skins, and add them together with the tomato paste. Cook for fifteen minutes until the mass darkens. Tomatoes in the shops now:

In the catalogues now: tomatoes

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The long simmer

Combine all the vegetables in a wide pot or a heavy-bottomed cauldron. Add the rest of the oil, the salt, sugar, pepper and bay leaves. Simmer on the lowest heat for an hour and a half to two hours and stir often, otherwise the spread catches on the bottom. Spread that has burned on the bottom turns bitter, and that cannot be fixed.

Judge doneness by consistency: the mass is thick like pâté, does not run off the spoon, and oil rises to the surface. Five minutes before the end add the vinegar. Taste for salt: in the jar the flavour dulls slightly.

Compare the price of the oil for the spread here:

Where it is cheaper: sunflower oil

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Jars and sealing

Wash the jars with soda, sterilise them in the oven or over steam and keep them hot. Boil the lids. Spoon the hot spread into hot jars right to the top, tapping to let the air out, and close tightly.

Turn the jars upside down, wrap them in a blanket and leave them until completely cool. That way the lids seat well. Keep the preserves in a cool dark place. For safety always boil the closed jars in a pot of water for fifteen minutes: roasted vegetables are not very acidic, and sealing alone is not enough. If a lid has bulged, throw the contents away.

What to serve with it

Zacuscă is spread on bread, eaten with mămăligă, served beside fried potatoes and meat. Cold zacuscă with dark bread and onion is the simplest supper. With mămăligă it goes well together with cheese and sour cream.

If you like vegetable dishes, try ghiveci: it has the same eggplants and peppers, but baked in the oven. Fasole bătută also goes well beside zacuscă.

Variations

Boiled beans go into zacuscă, making it more filling. Some people add fried mushrooms or courgette. For heat add hot red pepper: one pod without seeds, chopped small. Instead of fresh tomatoes many people take more tomato paste.

The proportions can change: more eggplant makes the spread more tender, more pepper and carrot make it sweeter. What matters is that the vegetables are ripe and not watery.

Storing it and saving money

Keep sealed jars in a cool dark place. Keep an opened jar in the fridge and use it within a week to a week and a half, taking it out with a clean spoon. Do not pour the spread into other dishes without need.

To save, buy vegetables in season by the crate and make a big batch at once: it comes out noticeably cheaper than buying ready-made spread. If you have few jars, cook half a batch and eat it at once: zacuscă is good fresh too.