Eggplant Fra Diavolo

I absolutely love traveling and indulging myself with delicacies of the various countries’ indigenous cuisines. One of my favorites will always be Italy with all its culinary highlights and tasty encounters. There is so much more beyond pizza and pasta but, most of the time, there is a delicious sauce involved. This one is, as the name suggests, indeed a little devilish with its spicy kick. Hence the name ‘Fra Diavolo’ which translates into brother devil. If you love thick, flavorful sauces with some fire, this one is for you! You can of course control Fra Diavolo by adding more or less fire and adjusting it to your heat tolerance.

Ingredients (for about 6 servings):

• 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large sweet onion, diced
• 2 dried Thai chili peppers (careful: they are very hot! You can use milder varieties or just less)
• 1 good size eggplant (mine weighed about 1 lb/500 g), ends removed, cut into about 3/4 inch (2 cm) cubes
• 7 cloves garlic, quartered lengthwise
• generous 3 lb (1500 g), tomatoes, diced
• 8 oz (225 g) mushrooms, thickly sliced
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 3 Tbsp sweet paprika powder
• 4 Tbsp homemade veggie broth concentrate (or store-bought granulated veggie broth concentrate to taste)
• generous 4 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 red bell peppers (or 1 red, 1 yellow), quartered lengthwise, then sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, quartered lengthwise, then sliced
• generous 4 oz (120 g) pitted Kalamata olives
• if necessary, Celtic sea salt to taste
• fresh basil
• fresh thyme

Serve with your favorite pasta, rice, or zucchini ‘pasta’ (zucchetti)!

Preparation:

Cut all the vegetables.

Preheat a large pot over medium heat. Add extra virgin olive oil with diced onion and chili peppers. If you want, you can break the chili peppers into smaller pieces. Wash hands!

Sauté onion and chili peppers for about 8 minutes.

Add cubed eggplant and cook for another 8 minutes while stirring frequently.

Add garlic, tomatoes, and mushrooms, then stir in maple syrup, dried oregano and thyme, sweet paprika, veggie broth concentrate, and tomato paste until everything is well combined. If you use store-bought vegetable broth concentrate, you might need less because it is much saltier than homemade. Turn up heat and bring to a boil, then reduce heat again and simmer for about 15 – 20 minutes. The eggplant should be soft!

Add  bell peppers with olives and simmer for 5 more minutes. If you like your bell peppers rather soft, cook a little longer.

Season to taste with Celtic sea salt, if necessary, and top with lots of fresh basil and thyme. Enjoy!

Notes:

• Perfect with vegan Parmesan cheese!
• I served the Eggplant Fra Diavolo on zucchetti, which are simply spiralized zucchini cooked with some garlic and Celtic sea salt in a little bit of olive oil. You can find the recipe here! This is much lighter than regular pasta and super delicious.