Classic Tomato, Cucumber, Pepper and Onion Summer Salad Istrian Recipe

July 20, 2023 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, dinner, healthy mael, Istrian cuisine, Istrian dish, Istrian food, light meal, main course, main dish, main vegetarian course, main vegetarian dish, main vegetarian meal, Nutritious, Nutritious dish, Salads, Side Dishes, simple recipe, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, summer dish, summer recipe, supper, Vegetable side dish, Vegetables, Vegetarian

This colourful cucumber, tomato, pepper and onion salad is very refreshing, and it is made during the summer when the vegetables are at their best and in abundance.

It is absolutely delicious, so easy to make, it hardly takes any effort.

It is traditionally served as a side dish to accompany grilled meats, but can be enjoyed as a main meal on a hot summer's day when you want to keep things easy.

To make it more substantial, I simply toast a piece bread, cut it into cubes and mix it into the salad (resembling a concept of Italian, Tuscan, Panzanella salad).

If you ever had a chance to travel along the Istrian coast or Dalmatia (in Croatia) and asked in the restaurant for a side salad, it is most likely that you were brought this one. It is an absolute classic during the summer season as the vegetables in this salad have a very high content of water and therefore the salad is very cooling.

This type of salad has been on the dinner tables of the locals – well, since forever, during the summer months almost on a daily basis.

Recipe

Ingredients

Serves 4 (as a side salad)

1 yellow bell pepper (can use orange, red or green bell pepper)
1 medium-large cucumber
2-4 tomatoes (depending on the size, I used vine tomatoes each weighing roughly 170g) Make sure you use in season, ripe and juicy tomatoes (can use San Marzano tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, beef tomatoes, grape tomatoes or a variety of your preference).
red onion or salad onion (about 40g), sliced
a few fresh basil leaves, torn, or dry oregano (optional)
For the dressing
extra virgin olive oil, generous drizzle
red or white wine vinegar, a drizzle
sea salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste

Method

Peel and slice the cucumber into coins and place into a big salad bowl.

Cut the tomatoes into wedges and add to the bowl.

Slice the bell pepper and the onions and put into the bowl.

Mix gently all the vegetables.

Add a generous drizzle of olive oil, a drizzle of vinegar, season with sea salt and black pepper.

For extra dimension, in terms of flavour, sprinkle the salad with a bit of dried oregano or with a few freshly torn basil leaves.

Toss and serve.

Peperonata Istrian style Recipe

Beans and Sardines

August 10, 2022 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, brunch, child friendly dish, child friendly meal, dinner, Easy recipe, entrée course, family friendly dish, family friendly meal, Healthy, healthy mael, Istrian cuisine, Istrian dish, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, light meal, main course, main dish, main vegetarian dish, main vegetarian meal, Nutritious, Nutritious dish, one pot meal, Rustic dish, Side Dishes, simple recipe, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, Starters, stew, summer dish, summer recipe, supper, Vegan, Vegetable side dish, Vegetables, Vegetarian, vegetarian summer stew, Venetian dish

This quintessentially summer dish gets devoured and seems to be a real hit every single time, it is a very “practical” dish, as it usually prepared in advance, and takes central stage on the tables of the locals back home on the Slovenian coast, where during the summer months the heat can be terrible but it is also during this time of the year that the ingredients for this dish are most abundant and taste their best.

Peperonata is cooked by the locals during the fresh, cooler, hours of the day, usually early in the morning or in the evening when it cools down a bit (there is a different rhythm of life, a different way of doing things, when you live in a climate that can regularly be very hot).

Moreover, better cooking follows this different, summer, rhythm of daily activities, since the following day the dish tastes even better as all the ingredients have a chance to mingle together!

Peperonata is so delicious you can just eat it on its own with some fresh crunchy or toasted bread, it is great paired with grilled meats and fish, cheeses, cold meats, cooked rice, makes a great base for a risotto or a pasta dish and incredibly tasty spread on bruschetta.

I am sharing here my mother's recipe for Istrian style peperonata, which is different from the Venetian variety where a little white wine is added to the dish.

When I cook this dish, I get immediately transported back home, to the sound of cicadas, to the fragrance of salty air, and to the childhood memories of long summers that never seemed to end...

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
5 Tbsp olive olive
onions (about 300g) peeled and finely sliced
400g aubergines, diced
500g yellow or green bell peppers, washed, deseeded and sliced into strips or cut into chunks)
300g tomatoes (juicy, ripe and sweet) roughly chopped
sea salt
few fresh basil leaves, optional
fresh flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped for garnish, optional

Method

Place the oil in a fairly large pan, add sliced onions, crushed garlic, a generous pinch of sea salt and cook the onions on a gentle heat (for about 10 minutes) or until soft and translucent stirring now and again (do not rush this process as the slowly caramelized onions will add a final taste of the dish).

Add cubed aubergines and cook gently for about 10-15 minutes or until cooked down and soft, stirring occasionally, making sure they do not catch to the bottom of the pan.

Transfer sliced bell peppers to the pan and cook together with the onions and aubergines for about 10-15 minutes or until softened a bit and cooked down, stirring now and again (if onion, aubergine and pepper mixture starts to catch at the bottom of the pan add a splash of water).

Add chopped tomatoes, a few fresh basil leaves, a splash of water and cover with the lid.

Simmer on a very gentle heat for about 40minutes, checking and stirring now and again making sure it does not stick to the bottom.

Taste and adjust the seasoning with sea salt.

Let it cool, sprinkle with some roughly chopped fresh flat leaf parsley and some basil leaves (optional) and serve tepid, at room temperature or cold.

Just a thought

Peperonata will keep very well in a fridge in an airtight container for a few days and is suitable for freezing especially if you make a large quantity, and want to eat it again in the near future; or, indeed, you want to bring back summer memories in the middle of winter.

The traditional way of preparing this dish does not call for chill, however, if you wish to add a bit of a kick to this dish it is perfectly fine to do so during the cooking process.

You can also add courgettes, some olives and capers to taste as a variation of this dish.

Wine suggestion

Calabria Rosato IGT "Terre Lontane" 2021 - Librandi

Šataraš - Bell peppers, onions and tomato Balkan inspired stew with scrambled eggs Recipe

Beans and Sardines

July 13, 2022 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, Appetizers, Balkan dish, breakfast, brunch, child friendly dish, child friendly meal, dinner, Easy recipe, entrée course, family friendly dish, family friendly meal, first course, first course dish, first course meal, Healthy, healthy mael, hearty dish, Istrian cuisine, Istrian dish, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, main course, main dish, Nutritious, Nutritious dish, Rustic dish, simple recipe, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, Spring dish, Spring recipe, Starters, stew, Vegetable side dish, Vegetables, Vegetarian, summer recipe, summer dish, vegetarian summer stew

Šataraš (pronounced Satarash) is a stew like dish made with fresh bell peppers, ripe sweet tomatoes, onions, and scrambled eggs, it is similar to Shakshuka which has a sunny-side up eggs and makes a perfect main meal choice in the summer when the vegetables used for the dish are in full season. This dish is very well known in the Balkan regions but not so much to the rest of the world.

Eating šataraš just make you happy, and it feels like having a sunshine on a plate, as the addition of the eggs makes this dish colourful, extra flavourful and filling, it is also healthy and fresh.

This is one of my absolute favourite childhood dishes and if you like bell peppers this recipe is one of those you will come back to it time and time again as the recipe is very easy to make and the base can be cooked well in advance.

This dish is normally homemade and not found in the restaurants, it is typically served for lunch or dinner but it is also a great choice for breakfast or brunch.

Šataraš travelled from the neighbouring Balkans and stayed in Slovenian Istra, where it has been a very welcomed guest and has been enjoyed by the generations of locals in the area where gastronomy has been strongly shaped and enriched by the Balkan culinary traditions as well as Venetian and Austro-Hungarian.

I am sharing here my mother's recipe for šataraš with which she has delighted us during long hot summer months. If you do try it, then I think you will soon realize how delicious this dish truly is in its humble simplicity.

Ingredients

Serves 4

4 bell peppers, a combination of yellow and green (each bell pepper weighing about 200g), wash, dry, remove the seeds and white filaments, and cut into strips (you can use more or less peppers according to your preference)
4 vine tomatoes (each weighing about 150g) or other types of sweet and ripe tomatoes, washed and roughly chopped (use more or less tomatoes according your liking)
1 onion (about 170g), peeled and finely sliced
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 eggs
sea salt
black pepper
fresh flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped, for serving, optional

Method

Place extra virgin olive oil in a fairly large frying pan, add sliced onions, a pinch of sea salt and cook for about 10 minutes on a gentle heat until the onions become soft and translucent, stirring occasionally.

Add strips of bell peppers and stir in with the onions. Cover with the lid (the steam will help to cook down and soften the peppers) and cook on a gentle heat for up to about 30 minutes.

Add chopped tomatoes, cover with the lid, and cook on a gentle heat, stirring occasionally, for about 20-30 minutes, or until tomatoes are cooked down and soft.

If the mixture has too much liquid (this will depend on how watery the tomatoes you are using are) take the lid off and cook further for a few minutes or until all of the liquid evaporates.

In a small bowl crack the eggs, slightly whisk, add sea salt and pepper.

Pour the egg mixture over the pepper stew, mix and stir and cook until desired consistency.

Sprinkle with roughly chopped fresh parsley, optional, and serve immediately with plenty of rustic crunchy bread.

Just a thought

This dish is best served hot, equally delicious at room temperature.

You can prepare pepper, onion and tomato stew well in advance, keep it in a fridge in an airtight container for about 3 days, and pour the whisked eggs on a pepper base just before you want to complete the dish and ready to serve it.

The pepper stew (without the egg) is also great served with grilled and barbecued meats, a great base for a risotto or a pasta dish, and it can also be enjoyed with polenta or an egg frittata.

Pepper, onion and tomato base is suitable for freezing.

Wine suggestion

Salento Negroamaro Rosato IGT “Calafuria” 2021 - Tormaresca

Stuffed peppers with minced meat and rice in a tomato sauce Istrian Recipe

Beans and Sardines

October 20, 2021 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, Appetizers, Balkan dish, Central European recipes, Eastern European recipes, Easy recipe, Istrian cuisine, Istrian dish, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, main dish, Rustic dish, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, Starters, one pot meal, baked dish

This Balkan dish made of peppers, stuffed with a mix of minced meat and rice and cooked or baked in a rich tomato sauce is very rustic, unpretentious, hearty and traditionally made during summer months, end of summer and early autumn.

Yes, there are a few steps to this recipe, but it is very simple to make and there is absolutely nothing complicated about it.

Stuffed peppers is a dish that is common in many cuisines around the world and generally consists of peppers getting halved or hollowed and then stuffed with a variety of different fillings such as meat, rice, vegetables, cheese, fish etc.

This dish, with its many variations, can be found in Greece, Central and Southeast Europe, Scandinavian and Baltic countries, Guatemala, North America Eastern Mediterranean, India and Spain.

It is in Eastern Mediterranean that stuffed peppers are part of Dolma, a word of Turkish origin, meaning “something stuffed” and it indicates a family of stuffed dishes originating from Ottoman Cuisine. The Ottoman Empire directly administered a vast territory, and eventually reached the Balkans and the area not far from the Istrian peninsula, where I come from, and this is why they strongly shaped the local cuisine.

As a result of this historical influence, there is no surprise that in the whole of Slovenia and in coastal Istria, stuffed peppers, known as Filana paprika or Polnjena paprika become integral part of the local diet and can be found on the menus informal family run restaurants, and it is one of the most frequently made dishes in many households.

I like to call this dish “a generational dish” since it is very much loved across different generations in the family, so when stuffed peppers are on the menu, everyone leaves the table happy.

Stuffed peppers are traditionally served with plenty of creamy mashed potatoes or just a lot of rice and bread. What is not to like about this dish?

Everyone in the family makes delicious stuffed peppers but this dish tastes super special and extra delicious when my brother cooks them. They are most often made a day in advance so all the flavours can fully develop and then gently reheat it. This is when they taste at their best.

I am sharing here my brother's recipe for stuffed peppers baked in the oven.

Ingredients

Serves 4-8 (depending if you are serving one or two stuffed peppers per person)

7-9 bell peppers, mixed colour or use just the ones that you prefer. The number of the peppers will depend on their size and also on the size of the dish you will use for this recipe and into which they need to fit. I used 8 medium size mixed peppers. (Babura type of peppers is a variety of peppers most commonly used for this recipe).
400g mince beef
400 mince pork
100g rice, any risotto type rice like Arborio, Vialone Nano, Carnaroli will work well
bigger size onion (about 170g), finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
black pepper, finely ground

Sauce

2 tinned finely chopped tomatoes (2x400g), the best quality you can afford
medium size onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
few fresh basil leaves
sea salt

Method

Before starting this recipe, I suggest you do a little test to see how many peppers will you actually need. Take the ovenproof dish you intend to bake the stuffed peppers in and see how many peppers will fit in it.

For this recipe you can use a deep baking tray and cover stuffed peppers with an aluminium foil.

Start by making a simple tomato sauce. Put extra virgin olive oil in a pan, add finely chopped onions, a pinch of salt and fry on a gentle heat until the onions become soft. Add crushed garlic and fry gently together with the onions just for a minute or so. Add tinned tomatoes, few fresh basil leaves, bring to the boil, turn the heat down, partially cover with the lid and gently simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. By this time, the sauce should have a nice rich velvety consistency.

Prepare and clean the peppers. Cut off the top part and remove white little seeds from inside the peppers. Rinse the outside and the inside of the peppers with cold running water. Dry the peppers a bit with a kitchen towel or kitchen paper.

Take a griddle pan (if you have it, otherwise non stick pan will work just fine) and heat it until very hot. Place the peppers in a pan and charcoal grill them on all sides. The skin of the peppers will burst slightly and turn a bit black giving the peppers a slightly smoky flavour. Cool the peppers and set aside.

Charcoal grilling the peppers first will really give and extra dimension in terms of the flavour to the dish, however, you can skip this step.

Cook the rice, following the instruction on the packet, but only halfway through. This will avoid the rice to become too mushy in the stuffing. Rinse in a small colander, cool and keep aside.

Put extra virgin olive oil in a pan, add finely chopped onions, a pinch of salt and fry on a gentle heat until the onions become soft. Add crushed garlic and fry gently together with the onions just for a minute or so. Place mince beef and mince pork in a pan and fry until brown, stirring occasionally. With the back of wooden spoon break bigger lumps of meat. Taste and adjust the seasoning with sea salt and finely ground black pepper. Cool a bit and set aside.

Transfer cooked rice and browned mince meat in a big mixing bowl. Mix well and set aside.

Transfer the tomato sauce in a ovenproof dish.

Turn the oven on and preheat it to 180C static or equivalent.

With the help of a spoon, fill each pepper with meat and rice mixture. With the back of the spoon press the mixture down as you go along, this will allow you to get more mixture in a pepper.

Place each filled pepper in the ovenproof dish filled with tomato sauce.

Cover with the lid and bake for 2 hours. Check occasionally giving a dish a gentle shake.

Just a thought

If you are left with meat and rice mixture you can use it in frittata or make scrambled eggs with it and there is another meal sorted.

You can store stuffed peppers for few days in an airtight container and they also freeze very well.

Wine suggestion

Collio Cabernet Sauvignon DOC 2018 - Muzic

Sautéed Bell Peppers with Onions and fresh Basil Recipe

July 20, 2021 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, Appetizers, brunch, Canapés, Easy recipe, Finger food, healthy mael, Istrian cuisine, Istrian dish, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, main course, main dish, Nutritious dish, Rustic dish, Side Dishes, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, Small bites, Snacks, Starters, supper, Vegan, Vegetarian

This recipe is very easy, very tasty, you only need a few fresh ingredients and you have a perfect summer side dish to accompany meat or fish.

Peppers cooked this way are also fantastic served on bruschetta, can also be used as a sauce for pasta dishes, great base for risotto, or simply enjoyed on its own with a fresh crunchy bread. I also love using sautèed peppers as a topping on a pizza.

This dish can really be summed up as a simplicity at its best.

I simply adore peppers, I love them raw in salads, cooked, sautèed, grilled...

I have very vivid memories as a child going with my mother to the farmers market and seeing the vegetable and fruit stalls full of colourful peppers, it just looked so beautiful...

After buying the peppers, I would pick one and my mother would wash it under cold water in one of the Venetian looking fountains in the market, and I would just munch it raw during the trip back home.

As soon as the peppers were available fresh to buy at end of spring and during the summer, when they are in abundance, my mother would make this dish very often and here I am very happy to share it with you..

Ingredients

Serves 4

6 mixed colour bell peppers, about 1kg (I used yellow, orange, green and red, you can use just one variety or a mixture of your preference)
1-2 onions, about 200g (peeled and thinly sliced)
fresh basil, few leaves
sea salt
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
chili, optional

Method

Wash and dry the peppers, cut them in half, remove the seeds and the white filaments.

Cut the peppers into smaller pieces.

Peel the onions and slice thinly.

Add the oil into a fairly large non stick pan.

Heat the oil and add the onions and a pinch of salt

Stew the onions over medium-low heat, for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions become soft and translucent.

Add the peppers, mix them well with the onions, add sea salt, fresh basil leaves and chilli if using.

Cover with the lid and cook the peppers on a medium-low heat anything between 30-50minutes, stirring occasionally.

The peppers, after this time, should be completely soft and all the water should be completely absorbed.

If the peppers are completely cooked but still quite watery, take the lid off and cook further for few minutes until all the water is completely absorbed.

Add few more fresh basil leaves and your peppers are ready to be enjoyed hot, warm, at room temperature or cold.

Just a thought

Peppers cooked this way can be stored for about 2-3 days in the fridge in an airtight container.

Freezing this dish is not recommended.

You can add crashed garlic (1 or 2 cloves) if you wish and replace fresh basil for fresh flat leaf parsley or use both.

Wine suggestion

Friuli Colli Orientali Sauvignon DOC 2019 by Valentino Butussi, Colli Orientali, Friuli