Nightshade Confit

When buying for this recipe look for smaller vegetables. If you can get local grown, even better.  You want young eggplant, small sizes, picked when the skin is still shiny and the seeds are still small. Small, skinny sweet peppers. Sweet green  onions with tops attached. Sweet cherry tomatoes and small zucchini picked well before maturity. 

Confit is a French term for vegetables cooked in a long, slow,  fat bath. Often duck fat is used. This recipe uses olive oil and lots of it. The cooking method exchanges the vegetable juices for the infused olive oil. Distribute the vegetables evenly because after a while they'll eventually become too tender to move. After about thirty to forty-​five minutes, the vegetables will glaze over and be so tender that they will literally fall apart. 

It can be made in advance and keeps well in the fridge for a week. I believe it actually gets better  Don’t let all the olive oil worry you. as it will functions as a preservative. 

Ingredients

Serves 6 generously as a main, or 10 as a side

INGREDIENTS 

• 2 medium globe or 3 Asian-​type eggplants about 1 pound

• 2 medium zucchini about 14 ounces

• 5 sweet or semi hot peppers about 6 ounces

• 2 green spring onions, greens trimmed

• 3/4 C extra-​virgin olive oil

• 1/2 t diamond crystal sea salt, plus more for the vegetable cooking

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 6 garlic cloves, sliced

• 1 small whole sweet onion 

• 1 1/2 t minced fresh rosemary

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes

• 2 T water

• 1 T honey

• 3 bay leaves

• 2 cinnamon sticks

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

If the eggplants are the globe type, cut them into quarters and then again into eighths; if they’re the long Asian type, halve lengthwise and then cut crosswise into long pieces. 

Cut the zucchini lengthwise into quarters. 

Halve the peppers if they’re larger than a kid’s fist. Quarter the onions.

Heat an extra-​large ovenproof sauté pan over medium-​high heat, then add a thin layer of the olive oil. Quickly brown the surfaces of the vegetables in batches (they’ll cook to tenderness later), seasoning them with salt and pepper just before putting them in the hot pan: first the eggplant, then the zucchini and the peppers, and then the onions. Don’t crowd them, or they’ll steam instead of sauté, and add a bit more oil if needed. Transfer the browned vegetables to a sheet tray.

Add the remaining olive oil, the garlic, and rosemary to the pan and cook briefly, just to take the bite out of the garlic, then add all of the sauteéd vegetables, nestling them into a nice formation, and drop the cherry tomatoes over the top. Season the vegetables with the 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste, then stir together the water and honey in a small dish and drizzle it over the vegetables. Tuck in the bay leaves and cinnamon sticks and bring everything to a simmer. Cook the vegetables until juices begin to accumulate, about 5 minutes, then tip the pan and baste the vegetables with a large spoon.

Cover the surface of the vegetables with a circular lid of parchment paper cut to fit the diameter of the pan, to trap in the flavor and moisture. Transfer the vegetables to the oven and bake for 30 minutes, stopping halfway through to baste the vegetables again. Remove the paper cover, baste the vegetables with the juices again, and bake, uncovered, for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the liquid clings thickly to the vegetables and the exposed surfaces begin to turn a darker color

Remove from the oven and let settle and cool. Serve directly from the pan. Delicious as a side or serve over pasta for a main dish.  

Adopted from a Splendid Table Recipe 

Urban Cowgill
October 2023

Another delicious version