Recipe for delicious tumbet mallorquin

A self-catering holiday doesn’t mean you have to forgo the cuisine of your destination. In fact, by learning a few recipes you can enjoy the flavours of where you are and have a new recipe to bring home! To help you savour the real taste of Majorca, we’ve found one of the island’s tastiest dishes and put together a quick, and simply mouth-watering, recipe for you to try.

Delicious Majorcan cuisine

Local Favourite tumbet mallorquin is a delightfully simple vegetarian dish, perfect for enjoying by the terrace of your Majorcan villa on a summer evening. Like most Mediterranean recipes, the dish benefits from the freshest ingredients – it’s lucky the local produce is just so good! Think ratatouilleor pisto, but with added potatoes and individually fried vegetables. There are few dishes better able to showcase Majorca’s tastiest locally grown veg.

What you’ll need –

Two large potatoes
One zucchini
One aubergine
One red pepper
One green pepper
One onion
Three tomatoes (one tin of chopped tomatoes will do)
Five garlic cloves
Rosemary
Thyme
Olive oil
Flour
Salt
Bay leaves
Sugar

Image by mallorcareise, used under Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.0)

Instructions

First, preheat the oven to 180°C. Choose a large pot and begin frying the garlic cloves in the olive oil. Now throw in the tomatoes, bay leaves, rosemary, thyme as well as a good sprinkling of salt and sugar. This will make the tomato sauce. While this simmers away, wash the other vegetables. A key aspect of tumbet mallorquin is that the main ingredients are all fried separately in the same oil one after the other.

First off is the zucchini. Make sure it is thinly sliced, then add it to a pan with hot oil. Once the zucchini is golden brown take it out of the pan and let it rest on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil. Now do the same with the aubergine. Slice it thinly, frying it in the same oil used with the zucchini and place it on another paper towel once done. Repeat with the potatoes.

The next step is to cut the red and green peppers into rings and fry them, too. Finally, chop the onion into thick strips before frying it in the oil. Now it’s time to assemble the meal. Take a large casserole dish and begin by creating a layer of potatoes at the the bottom, followed by the onions. Add on the zucchini, then the eggplant and finally the peppers.

Next take your tomato sauce, cover the vegetables and bake the dish for around 15 to 20 minutes. After that, you’re ready to tuck in! This dish is as delicious cold as it is hot, so why not save some for a cold snack the next day?

Feeling inspired by this article? Why not take a look at our villas?

By Imogen Bishop, a part time travel writer, part time restaurant critic, and full time mum. She has an affinity for Mediterranean cuisine and can usually be found in the kitchen with a bottle of olive oil in hand.