Ciambotta (summer vegetable stew)
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We love Ciambotta for so many different reasons. We love the colours in the dish, how it makes the most of summer vegetables at their peak, that it is uber healthy and our children love it. But what we love most is that its flavour improves with time and it can be reinvented into so many dishes. This is one of those dishes that keeps on giving. Ciambotta is delicious on its own. It is great as a side dish or to cook together with fish, sausages, boiled beef or scrambled eggs. Ciambotta can be served tepid or cold. Our favourite is the version we were told about when visiting Sicily. We were told that mothers would hollow out a large loaf of bread and fill it with ciambotta for the family to eat when they went to the seaside. Our children think it's pure magic - the meal hidden inside the bread. The origin of this style of eating ciambotta is credited to agricultural workers who would bring their food to work stuffed inside a loaf of bread. Ciambotta is a vegetable stew popular throughout southern Italy and can be made with any mixture of peppers, courgettes (zucchini), aubergines (eggplant), potatoes, celery, tomatoes, onions, garlic, olives, parsley, basil, oregano and saffron. Make whichever version you prefer but ideally whatever is growing in your garden.