Fergese recipe

Albanian peppers and tomatoes stewed in olive oil then bound with gjizë, the salted curd cheese that melts the dish into a cream.

1 houreasy9 ingredients

Ingredients

• 350 g gjize curd cheese
• 4 green peppers
• 6 tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 3 clove garlic
• 100 ml olive oil
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

How to make Fergese

1. Chop 4 green or red peppers, 6 ripe tomatoes and 1 onion into small pieces.
2. Sweat the onion in 100 ml olive oil over low heat for 5 minutes, add the peppers and cook 10 minutes more.
3. Add the tomatoes, 3 crushed garlic cloves and 2 bay leaves, and cook 15 minutes until the water has gone and the oil separates.
4. Season with 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp black pepper, take the pan off the heat and fish out the bay leaves.
5. Stir in 350 g gjizë until the mixture is even and creamy. Gjizë is the dish. If you cannot find it, lightly salted fresh ricotta is the nearest thing; feta stays in hard crumbs and gives you something else.
6. Transfer to an earthenware dish and bake at 175 °C for 15 minutes, until the top just colours.
7. Serve straight from the dish, very hot, with bread. Note that the liver version, also called fërgesë Tirane, swaps the gjizë for pan-fried calf liver.

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