Harvest Confit is not really a recipe, because you can use almost any vegetable you have on hand, whether you grew it yourself, or whether you became overly zealous at the farmer’s market. The idea is to slowly roast vegetables in a copious amount of olive oil with plenty of garlic and herbs, until they begin to melt and meld together. I call this recipe Harvest Confit, because I make it at the end of the season after our final harvest, right before the first frost. The harvest is so unpredictable – a few tomatoes, an eggplant or two, a green bean, an overgrown squash. Either we have too much of a good thing, or not enough of a single vegetable to do something with it on its own.
This is a riff on my recipe for Eggplant Confit. The anchovies and garlic are a must, and at the risk of sounding like Ina, it must be good olive oil. But the herbs you choose to use are entirely a function of whatever vegetables you’re using. Thyme goes with anything. Basil is a natural pairing with eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers. Carrot confit with rosemary, perhaps? Brussels sprouts and leeks with Herbs de Provence? It’s really up to you.
So, you’ve reduced your veg to confit, pray tell, what do you do with it? Well, you could slather Harvest Confit on crackers or slabs of sourdough. You could use it as a pasta sauce or a pizza topping. You could serve it with eggs or layer it in a lasagna. Or you could just eat by itself, with a big spoon…
Harvest Confit
Equipment
- large baking dish with lid
Ingredients
- 3 medium eggplant
- 5 Roma tomatoes
- kosher salt (for sweating the eggplant and tomatoes)
- granulated sugar (for sweetening the tomatoes
- 2 yellow squashes (optional)
- 10 Romano green beans (optional)
- 3 cloves garlic
- 3 anchovy filets
- dried thyme and black pepper
- 1 1/2 cup olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven and prepare the eggplant and the tomatoes – Preheat the oven to 325 ℉. Cut the stem off each eggplant and slice the eggplant lengthwise. Sprinkle the eggplant slices with kosher salt and let them sit for about ten minutes. After the eggplant slices have begun to sweat, blot them dry with a paper towel. Core and deseed the tomatoes. Lay out on your cutting board, cut side up, and sprinkle with a bit of salt and a bit of sugar. Let rest for about 10 minutes while the eggplant is sweating.
- Prepare the other veg – Peel and smash the garlic. Slice whatever other veg you're going to include in the confit – destem, deseed, slice, as necessary.
- Fill the baking dish – Add the eggplant, tomatoes, and other vegetables to your baking dish. Spread the garlic, anchovies, thyme on and around the eggplant. Give it a few grinds of black pepper. Pour in the oil. Stir to combine.
- Bake – Bake, covered, until the veg is soft and sweet, and has collapsed in the oil.
- Serve – However you serve it, you probably won't be able to eat it all in one sitting. Stash the rest in the fridge with few more sprigs of thyme, and savor it later.
