Restaurateur Eleftheria Amanatidis’s Greek grandparents taught her to cook. Here, she shares a treasured family recipe for spetsofai, made with loukaniko sausages.
Eleftheria Amanatidis
One of Eleftheria Amanatidis’s earliest memories was kneading pita dough, aged three, under her grandmother’s watchful eye.
The pint-sized apprentice has grown up to run Eleni’s Kitchen + Bar in Melbourne’s Yarraville, and considers it a gift that her Greek grandparents on both sides taught her how to prepare, cook and bake treasured family dishes.
“Today I bring those talents to life, preserving long-held food and cultural traditions from my family’s origin,” she writes in the introduction to her self-published cookbook, Ela na Fáme! (or “come and eat”, as her yiayias used to call to bring everyone to the table).
Here, she shares her grandfather’s recipe for spetsofai, a rib-sticking Greek sausage, tomato and capsicum stew.
“At the restaurant, we serve this with house-made bread,” says Amanatidis. “But you can use a classic pasta dura bread or a crusty baguette. No vegetables or salads are needed! It’s all about the sauce.”
—Roslyn Grundy, Good Food recipe editor
Spetsofai (Greek sausage, tomato and capsicum stew)
Being a butcher, my Pappou Mitch was always known to cook up a storm with meat, and this dish was his favourite. Spetsofai (sausage, tomato and capsicum stew) can be shared as a starter. But in Northern Greece, it’s a well-known main. Fresh bread is an absolute must alongside it.
INGREDIENTS
- olive oil, for cooking
- 2 loukaniko sausages (about 160g each), skin on, cut into chunks (see note)
- 3 tomatoes, diced
- 1 large red onion, cut into roughly 3cm chunks
- 1 red capsicum, cut into roughly 3cm chunks
- 1 green capsicum, cut into roughly 3cm chunks
- 1 bunch parsley, roughly chopped
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- dried Greek oregano, to taste
- sweet or hot paprika, to taste
- chilli flakes, to taste
- 350ml tomato passata
- 250ml (1 cup) white wine
- fresh or toasted bread, to serve
METHOD
- Heat a large saucepan over medium heat and add enough olive oil to generously cover the base.
- Add the sausage to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes, until seared. You don’t need to add any seasoning at this point – the fat and seasonings in the sausages will make a good base for the spetsofai.
- Once browned, transfer the sausage to a plate with a slotted spoon and set aside while you cook the remaining ingredients in the same pan.
- Add the tomato, onion, capsicum and parsley, and stir well. Season well with salt, pepper, oregano, paprika and chilli flakes. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent and the capsicum has softened.
- Once the vegetables have come together nicely, add the passata and wine. Return the sausage to the pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 45-60 minutes, depending on the desired consistency. This is essentially a sausage stew – you’re looking for some liquid, but it should be thicker than a soup, ready to mop up with fresh or toasted bread.
Serves 8-10
Note: Loukaniko sausages are usually made with a mixture of pork and beef, but you can use whatever sausages you prefer, as long as they’re premium quality.
This is an edited extract from Ela na Fáme! Come and Eat by Eleftheria Amanatidis. Photographs by Hayden Golder. Ela na Fáme! is available for purchase online via eleniskitchen.com.au/cookbook, RRP $39.95.
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