When I was growing up, my maternal grandparents lived next door to us. I remember sitting on Grandpa's lap as he told me, in his thick accent, about Bulgaria—the country where he was born. (Bulgaria is bordered by Romania on the north and Greece and Turkey on the south. On the eastern border is the Black Sea and on the western border is Serbia, Montenergo and Macedonia.) He told me there were beautiful mountains near his home town and that the winters could get as cold as those in Minnesota. In one area of Bulgaria, there was a Valley of Roses—where roses were grown for rose oil used in the perfume industry.
Grandpa ate weird food for a Minnesotan in the 1950’s, like yogurt (which none of my family or friends had ever heard of, much less tasted) and pickled pig’s feet. He loved the flavor of vinegar and so he splashed it over all kinds of food my German-American grandmother made and she would just roll her eyes when he did that.
Bulgaria was the one place I always wanted to visit, and a few years ago, Jack and I were able to go. We used Altours travel agency to plan our 2-week long trip through the entire country of Bulgaria.
Before our trip, I met a young Bulgarian woman named Nevena, who works here at General Mills. Jack and I took her out for breakfast one weekend and she showed us photographs of her home in Bulgaria and of her family. Nevena encouraged us to visit her home town of Troyan during our travels through Bulgaria and so we did. While we were there, we met Krasimira, Nevena's mother, who gave us a guided tour around the town and then took us out for lunch. (In case you are wondering, we traveled with a driver and a translator--I don't speak Bulgarian.)
We recently had dinner at the home of Nevena and her fiancé, Cvetomir. Nevena started our meal with a delicious appetizer array of pickles, feta cheese, sliced cold sausage, olives and three spreads: hummus, an eggplant spread and Lyutenitsa, which is a spicy tomato and roasted pepper spread, much like salsa only thicker.
Below (in the photo) is the Lyutenitsa that Nevena purchased in a jar at an imported foods store in Minneapolis. It was a pretty bright red color and tasted of tomatoes, roasted red peppers, onions, sunflower oil and hot chilies.We spooned it onto wedges of pita bread.
The Bulgarian work “lyut” means, hot, pungent or spicy. In one of my Bulgarian cookbooks (Bulgarian Rhapsody by Linda Joyce Forristal) I found two recipes for Lyutenitsa: one that used more roasted red peppers than tomatoes and the classic recipe with more tomatoes. I decided to make the lyutenitsa recipe from the cookbook with a predominance of peppers and I simplified the recipe, by purchasing a jar of roasted red peppers instead of roasting them myself.
I liked the flavor of my homemade Lyutenitsa but the color was pale and a little salmon colored compared to the purchased spread that Nevena served us. The other thing I liked better about the purchased version was that it was a little chunkier than my homemade smoother version. When I told Nevena about the recipe I tried, she told me that she would get her mother's recipe for me. I can't wait to try that one!
Red Pepper Lyutenitsa
(Spicy Pepper Spread)
1 jar (16 oz) roasted red peppers
1 small onion, cut into quarters
2 serrano chiles, stems and seeds removed
4 to 5 tablespoons tomato paste
¼ cup sunflower oil
1 teaspoon salt
Pita breads cut into wedges, toast points, sliced baguette
Please all ingredients except pita breads in blender container. Blend until mixture is smooth. Serve with pita breads, cut into wedges any other toast or bread.
About 2 cups