• Chef’s notes
• Details
• Ingredients
• Directions

§Chef’s notes

For the sauce you can use the broiler on your oven, but you’ll be lacking the smokey flavor you get from the charcoal.

On the sausage, I used an extruder and that made a nice uniform sausage. It’s a bit overkill but a fun way to do it.

§Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 30 ish min
• 🍳 Cook time: 2 ish hours

§Ingredients

• For the Sausage
• 1 lb ground beef
• 4 Cloves Garlic
• 50 ML Water
• 1 Tsp Paprika
• 1 Tsp Baking soda
• 1 Tsp salt
• 1 Tsp Black Pepper
• 1 Tbsp EVOO
• For the Sauce
• 2 Lbs Red Bell Peppers
• 1 Med eggplant ~1/3 lb
• ~ 5 med Garlic Cloves
• 1/4 cup EVOO
• 1 Tbsp white vinegar
• 1 Tsb Salt plus more to taste
• Fresh Ground pepper to taste

§Directions

1. For the Sauce
2. Light one chimney full of charcoal. When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and arrange coals on one side of the charcoal grate. Set cooking grate in place, cover grill and allow to preheat for 5 minutes. Clean and oil the grilling grate. Place peppers on hot side of grill and cook until blackened all over, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer pepper to a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit until cool enough to handle, about 20 minutes. Remove charred skin, seeds, and cores from peppers.
3. While the peppers are cooling, pierce skin of eggplant with a fork all over. Place eggplant on cool side of grill. Cover and cook until skin darkens and wrinkles and eggplant is uniformly soft when pressed with tongs, about 30 minutes, turning halfway through for even cooking. Remove eggplant from grill and let sit until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Trim top off eggplant and split lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop out flesh of eggplant; discard skin.
4. Place roasted red peppers, eggplant pulp, and garlic in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse until roughly chopped. Add in oil, vinegar, and salt and pulse until incorporated and peppers are finely chopped.
5. Transfer sauce to a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper to taste. Let cool to room temperature then use immediately or transfer to an airtight container and store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
6. For the Sausage
7. Take a large mixing bowl and put the mince, garlic, paprika, salt and pepper in. Mix together by hand
8. The take a small dish and mix the water and baking soda together. It should dissolve a little.
9. Add the two mixtures together and mix well for about 5 minutes.
10. Have a large plate ready. Take a small handful of the mixture and make it into a ball firstly then into a small sausage shape of about 15cm. Pat each end to flatten and place it on the plate.
11. Use a frying pan on medium heat and drizzle in the olive oil. Cook the sausages in batches so the pan is not too full. Cook for a few minutes each side, until they’re browned. (Always check they’re cooked before serving).
12. Once cooked, serve hot with fresh lapinja bread (pita or focaccia will also work) and chopped raw onion.