About this Samfaina recipe
In Catalonia, this Samfaina recipe is eaten as a sauce or a condiment. In Valencia they use it as a filling for cocas, a specific type of bread that can be both sweet and savory, a bit like pizza or a bit like pastry. We suggest eating Samfaina as a nice side-dish, since this vegetable symphony goes very well with bread or rice.
Samfaina consists of a so-called sofrito with eggplant, zucchini and peppers. So what exactly is a sofrito? I’m glad you ask. A sofrito, in Mediterranean and Latin cuisine, is used as a base for a sauce. Normally it’s onion sauteed in olive oil with garlic and/ or spices. In Samfaina the sofrito consists of onion, garlic and tomatoes. Basically it is a sauce-like substance made by chopping up ingredients into very small pieces.
Kitchen utensils
- Saucepan
Ingredients
Serves 2-3 as a side dish. Eat with rice or bread for a light main meal
- 1 eggplant, cut in chunks
- 1 zucchini, cut in chunks
- 1 red bell pepper, cut in chunks
- 1 green sweet pepper, cut in chunks
- 1 onion, chopped up
- 4 tomatoes, chopped up
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped up
- 2 teaspoons of thyme
- A few branches of parsley
How to make Samfaina
Wait time: 60 min. | Prep time: 5 min. | Cook time: 20 min.
- First chop the eggplant into chunks. Sweat the eggplant. Do so by sprinkling them with ample salt on either a kitchen towel or in a colander (with something underneath as moist will come out of the eggplant). Let stand for about 60 minutes.
- Chop up the onion and garlic.
- Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan or wok.
- When the olive oil is hot, add the onion and garlic and sauté for a few minutes until the onion becomes translucent.
- Meanwhile rinse the eggplant and let it leak out. Add to the pan and fry for a few minutes.
- In the meantime, chop up the zucchini and add to the pan. Keep on stirring.
- While the eggplant and zucchini soften, seed and chop the peppers in big chunks.
- If both the eggplant and the zucchini have become soft, add the peppers. Keep on stirring.
- Seed the tomatoes and chop up into very small dice.
- Add the tomatoes and the thyme.
- Chop up the parsley and keep a few branches for garnishing.
- When the tomato has become a sofrito with the onion and garlic — that is when most of the liquid has vaporized — add the parsley and season with salt and pepper.
Serve this Samfaina recipe with rice or bread for a complete meal.
Summary
Recipe: Samfaina
Country: Spain
Wait: 60 min.
Prep: 5 min.
Cook: 20 min.
Total: 25 min.
Ingredients: onion, eggplant, red bell pepper, green sweet pepper, zucchini, olive oil, tomato, parsley, garlic, thyme
Type of meal: side dish
