Market Recipe: Summer Ciambotto with Organicare Italian Sausage

Market Recipe: Summer Ciambotto with Organicare Italian Sausage

By Chef Maggie Perkins

Ciambotto is an Italian staple dish, a type of vegetable stew similar to the French ratatouille. It traditionally includes potatoes, but this version employs only the best of Texas’ summer season vegetables– tomato, eggplant, sweet pepper, seasoned with onion, garlic, and basil.

The beauty of the dish is its adaptability. Measurements are inexact, dependent upon your favorite farmer’s, or your personal  garden’s particular harvest.

Prepare vegetables by slicing into bite-sized pieces. Smash a few garlic cloves. Heat enough olive oil to cover a pan by 1/4 inch. Sauté onions with garlic until translucent. Remove. Sauté eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes, stirring frequently, until limp, and tomatoes begin to break down. Return onions and garlic to the pan and combine well. Reduce heat, cover, and stew until done to your liking. (This dish is not traditionally al dente, but rather soft and well-blended). Correct seasonings.

To another pan over medium fire, heat enough olive oil to cover the pan by a scant quarter inch, until shimmering. Add Organicare Farm whole link Italian Sausage, and heat until browned, then carefully turn links to brown opposite side.

Remove from heat and serve atop ciambotto.