Spetsofai - Greek 'ratatouille' with sausages
I got to know spetsofai at Stelios, my 'local' taverna in Mikri Viglia on Naxos, in the Cyclades, where they make you a huge bowl of it to order - so huge that, now, I order one portion for two, with a plate of plain white rice on the side. If you look it up, you'll find spetsofai is supposed to be sausages with sweet peppers and, to make it hot, chillis. At Stelios, a family taverna, I doubt anyone has ever looked into the matter or cares much. They make it more or less like a ratatouille , with courgettes and aubergines and not hot at all, and as I first ate it there, I like it with cubes of aubergine. In any case, if you want an authentic recipe, Akis Petretzikis, whose recipes are foolproof, has one . If you don't really mind either way, here's mine. As usual, making it is easy. The problem is to find a good sausage. Greek 'country sausage', as they call it on menus - loukaniko - is more rustic in flavour and texture than anything I could find in P...