Spanish Escalivado Tostadas

Instructions

Preheat oven to 500 F. Place the eggplant, peppers, onion and zucchini in a shallow roasting pan. Drizzle over about 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and toss together. Roast in the hot oven for about 20 minutes, turning the vegetables over a couple of time throughout the roasting time. Remove the pan from the oven and let vegetables cool slightly. Reduce oven temperature to 350 F. When cool enough to handle, skin the peppers, remove the seeds and core. Peel the eggplant, slice in half and, using a spoon, remove the seeds. Roughly cut the eggplant, peppers, onion and zucchini and transfer to a bowl. Add the remaining olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper and toss together. Let sit for a few minutes at room temperature to allow flavours to develop.

Place the slices of bread on a baking sheet. Lightly toast in the oven for about 5 minutes in total, turning once. Remove from the oven and lightly brush with a bit of olive oil. Spoon a little of the vegetable mixture on each toast and serve. Serves 4-6.

Serve with Spanish white made from Albarino grape. This wine has a fresh, crisp, appley flavour, very similar to the vinho verde of Portugal, where this grape is called alvarinho.

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Author's Comments

When they roast vegetables like this in Spain they call it escalivada, a lovely name for this colourful mixture of eggplant, peppers, onions and zucchini that can be roasted in the oven or cooked on an indoor or outdoor grill. Use good extra virgin olive oil—preferably from Spain—for this dish. You can vary this by presenting it in a shallow ceramic bowl as part of an antipasto spread, tossing with pasta or serving over rice.

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