Romanian · sauce/condiment

Zacuscă (Autumn Roasted Aubergine and Pepper Preserve)

Zacuscă (Autumn Roasted Aubergine and Pepper Preserve) reads sweetness 5.3, umami 4.6 and salinity 3.7 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Romanian sauce/condiment, about 4 hr 33 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 4.9 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 6.1 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 2.7 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 3.3 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 3.4 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 3.4 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Sweetness 5.3 · Umami 4.6 · Salinity 3.7 · Allium 3.1 · Earthy 2.9 · Richness 2.9 · Fruity 2.7 · Sourness 2.4 · Warm Spice 1.9 · Bitterness 1.8 · Nutty 1.7 · Heat 1.1 · Citrus 0.9 · Herbaceous 0.9 · Smoke 0.5 · Floral 0.5

What's in it (9)

• red bell peppers — 2000 g
• eggplant — 1500 g
• onions — 1000 g
• sunflower oil — 368 g
• tomato paste — 200 g
• bay leaf — 2 g
• salt — 30 g
• black peppercorns — 15 g
• caster sugar — 4 g

Time & effort: about 4 hr 33 min (4 hr 13 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 34.8 kcal, 1.1 g protein, 0.2 g fat, 7.7 g carbs

Dietary: Vegan — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (9 steps)

1. Char the peppers and the whole aubergines directly over a wood fire, a gas flame or under the hottest grill you have, turning, for about 28 minutes, until the skins are blistered black all over and the flesh has collapsed. This is not a step you can move to a moderate oven. Zacuscă made from oven-roasted vegetables is edible and completely flat; the smoke driven into the flesh over open flame is the flavour that Romanians recognise, and in the villages the whole thing is done outdoors on a grate over embers.
2. Put them into a bowl, cover, and sweat 20 minutes so the skins loosen.
3. Peel off every scrap of blackened skin, 20 minutes, and pull out the pepper seeds. Do not rinse them under the tap; you will wash the smoke away.
4. Stand the peeled aubergines in a colander to drain for 1 hour. They hold a great deal of bitter water.
5. Chop everything by hand on a wooden board, 20 minutes, to a coarse rubble. Do not use a food processor. Zacuscă has texture; a purée is a different, sadder condiment.
6. Cook the onions in the sunflower oil in a wide heavy pot over medium heat for 25 minutes, until sweet, soft and just gold. The quantity of oil looks alarming and is correct: it is the preservative and it is what makes the finished paste spreadable.
7. Add the chopped vegetables, the tomato paste, bay, salt, cracked pepper and sugar and cook 1 hour 10 minutes over low heat, stirring often and scraping the base. It is ready when a spoon drawn across the bottom leaves a track that stays open for a second and a film of oil rises to the surface.
8. Ladle boiling hot into sterilised jars, 10 minutes, leaving 1 cm of headspace, and seal.
9. Process the sealed jars in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes, then leave them under blankets to cool slowly overnight. Made in October when the peppers are cheapest, eaten all winter on dark bread for breakfast.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Fabio'S Chickpea Soup — Middle Eastern
• Pabellón Criollo — Venezuelan
• Fasolada — Greek
• Beef Picadillo with Rice — Mexican
• Loaded Veggie Chili with Cornbread — American

Keep reading: what sweetness, umami, salinity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.