Briam
Sliced summer vegetables baked slowly in a great deal of olive oil until the edges blacken and everything collapses together.
- Prep
- 25m
- Cook
- 1h 30m
- Waiting
- 20m
- Total
- 2h 15m
- Serves
- 6
- Effort
- Easy
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 500 g | Slice everything to the same thickness, about 5 mm 20m Even slices are the only way they finish together. This is worth the mandoline. | Layer the sliced vegetables in the tin, overlapping, and pour the tomato mixture over 15m One shallow layer. Piled deep, the middle steams and never browns. | Bake at 190°C / 375°F for 90 minutes, uncovered, then rest 20 1h 50m Baste twice with the oil pooling at the corners. It is warm, tomatoey and does more than any basting liquid you could make. | |
| 3 | ||||
| 1 | ||||
| 2 | ||||
| 1 | ||||
| 400 g | Stir together 5m | |||
| 150 ml | ||||
| 5 cloves | ||||
| 2 tsp | ||||
| 2 tsp | ||||
| 1 tsp | ||||
| a handful | ||||
-
Slice everything to the same thickness, about 5 mm
20m- potatoes 500 g
- courgettes 3
- aubergine 1
- red onions 2
- red pepper 1
Even slices are the only way they finish together. This is worth the mandoline.
-
Stir together
5m- tinned chopped tomatoes 400 g
- extra virgin olive oil 150 ml
- garlic 5 cloves
- dried oregano 2 tsp
- fine salt 2 tsp
- black pepper 1 tsp
-
Layer the sliced vegetables in the tin, overlapping, and pour the tomato mixture over
15m- from 1 Slice everything to the same thickness, about 5 mm
- from 2 Stir together
One shallow layer. Piled deep, the middle steams and never browns.
-
Bake at 190°C / 375°F for 90 minutes, uncovered, then rest 20
1h 50m- from 3 Layer the sliced vegetables in the tin, overlapping, and pour the tomato mixture over
- flat-leaf parsley a handful
Baste twice with the oil pooling at the corners. It is warm, tomatoey and does more than any basting liquid you could make.
Oil as a cooking medium
The olive oil is not a dressing here, it is how heat gets into the vegetables. Oil conducts far better than the surrounding air and it can sit well above water’s boiling point, so the slices in contact with it confit and brown while the ones above steam in tomato. That is the contrast the dish is built on, and halving the oil gives you a tray of pale, dry vegetables instead.
Ninety minutes is not caution either — courgette and aubergine only turn sweet once their cell walls have properly broken down.
Notes
- Salt the aubergine slices for 15 minutes if you like; it firms them but is not essential in a bake this long.
- Warm or room temperature, never straight from the oven. The flavours need the rest.
- Better on day two, and the cold oil on top is for bread.