serves 6
Spetzofai, a dish native to the Mount Pelion region of central Greece, is traditionally a stew of sausages and peppers cooked in a tomato-based sauce. Indeed, its name comes from the Italian spezzatino (“red sauce”) and fai, the Greek word for food—literally, “red food”! There are variations for pescatarians and vegetarians alike, with shrimp or small fish, such as mullets, and peppers giant beans and peppers—and this hearty rendition of mushrooms and peppers.
½ cup (120 ml) extra-virgin Greek olive oil
3 large red onions, halved and sliced
6 green or red bell peppers, cut into 1-inch-wide (2.5 cm) strips
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound (450 g) oyster mushrooms, wiped clean and trimmed
1 pound (450 g) portobello mushrooms, wiped clean and trimmed
1 cup (35 g) dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in 1½ cups (360 ml) warm water for 15 minutes, or ¼ pound (115 g) fresh, wiped clean and trimmed
1 cup (240 ml) dry white wine
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon tomato paste, diluted in ½ cup (120 ml) water
10 fresh thyme sprigs
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
1 to 2 tablespoons Greek balsamic vinegar, as needed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup (25 g) finely chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup (13 g) chopped fresh oregano
In a large wide pot or saucepan, heat ¼ cup (60 ml) of the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and bell peppers and cook, stirring gently, until wilted, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic.
Cut any overly large oyster mushrooms in half vertically and cut the portobellos into 3 or 4 slices each. If using dried porcinis, drain them, reserving their soaking liquid, and set aside until ready to use. Strain the soaking liquid through a coffee filter or fine-mesh sieve and set aside.
Add the oyster, portobello, and fresh or dried porcini mushrooms to the pan. Raise the heat to medium-high and pour in the wine. As soon as the alcohol cooks off, add the porcini soaking liquid, if you used dried porcinis, the diluted tomato paste, bay leaves, thyme, and rosemary. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Cover with the lid ajar and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the mushrooms are tender but not overcooked.
Remove the thyme and rosemary sprigs and bay leaves. Taste and season with the vinegar (using more or less to your liking) and salt and black pepper to taste. Gently stir in the parsley and oregano. Remove from the heat, drizzle with the remaining ¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil, and serve.
I am a great fan of stuffed vegetables and have always been surprised by the range and ingenuity of these simple, seasonal dishes throughout Greece. Most people know the classics like rice-and-herb-stuffed tomatoes and bell peppers; ground meat–filled zucchini tubes; and imam bayildi, an onion-rich vegetarian stuffed eggplant. But the variations, even on the classics, are endless and speak tomes about the way country cooks take basic ingredients to create lasting traditions with regional distinctions.
In northern Greece, for example, a stuffed pepper might not be the classic green bell variety but a fleshy, horn-shaped sweet red pepper called a Florina. Up north, rice and herbs are typically enhanced with raisins and pine nuts, an influence that traces its roots to the cooking of the Anatolian Greek settlers who arrived en masse from Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) almost a hundred years ago, bringing with them an urbane, aromatic cuisine. Another classic of Thessaloniki is a roasted feta-stuffed Florina pepper, one of the most popular taverna dishes.
Eggplants have inspired home cooks with stuffings that range from a whole quail—an old dish from the Aegean islands—to spiced ground meat, octopus and rice (as in the recipe from Lesvos here), cheeses, seafood, and more. In this chapter, I have a few stuffed eggplant recipes, one for a not-so-classic papoutsaki, which means “shoe” in Greek, a creative reference to how these eggplant boats look when baked, and one for my rendition of imam bayildi, with grape molasses and raisins.
The grains used in traditional stuffed vegetable recipes, especially for stuffed tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and eggplant, run the gamut from rice, which is cultivated in Greece, to bulgur, trahana (see here), and, nowadays, quinoa and buckwheat. There is a special short-grain stuffing rice grown, like the other varieties, in Chalastra, just south of Thessaloniki, on the delta of the Axios River. Its proximity to the sea while growing gives Greek rice a particularly delicious flavor.
