cevapcici Archives - Taste With The Eyes

Cevapcici Flatbread Pizza with Ajvar and Sweet Onion aka #SuperBowl Flatbread

Favorite Dish on the Super Bowl Buffet, Guaranteed

Cevapcici (Lamb and Beef Sausage) Flatbread Pizza
with
Ajvar (Spicy Roasted Red Pepper and Eggplant Dip/Spread)
Mozzarella, Sweet Onion, Sour Cream

San Pedro, our charming town located on the seaside corner of America’s second largest city, is home to thousands of Croatians, including my butcher. One of his specialties is the stubby cigar-shaped Balkan sausage known as cevapcici. He makes his with lamb and beef and spices although some people also add pork to the mix.

They are skinless and formed by a unique kitchen gadget, into what I would call a particularly unfortunate shape as they are not too pretty for the camera if you know what I mean. But what they lack in visual appeal, they make up for in flavor.

Cevapcici are almost always accompanied by onion and often by sour cream, peppers, flatbread, and ajvar – a super-tasty Balkan spread/dip/relish made primarily with roasted red pepper then smaller amounts of roasted eggplant, chili, salt, sunflower oil, and sometimes garlic. For the Super Bowl, I’m transforming the beloved Balkan sausage and it’s condiments into a pizza. It will be the favorite dish on the buffet, guaranteed.

Pronounce all the c’s like a ch, Che-VAP’-Chi-Chi. And pronounce ajvar as AY-var.

How to Make Cevapcici Flatbread Pizza

Continue reading “Cevapcici Flatbread Pizza with Ajvar and Sweet Onion aka #SuperBowl Flatbread”

I live in the town of San Pedro, which is part of the city of Los Angeles, and is home to thousands of Croatians, including my butcher. For years, I have seen these little cigar-like Balkan Sausages at the butcher shop but unfortunately never bothered to ask about them. The other day, the lady in front of me bought loads of them. She said her family is wild about cevapcici and she usually grills or broils them and serves with onions and peppers in olive oil. So…I added some to my order. It was time to give these little guys a try.

After some research on the Internet, I found they are almost always served with onions then ingredients like sour cream, peppers, paprika, and flat bread are not far behind.

I sautéed onions and peppers then added salt, garlic and spicy paprika, meanwhile cooking the cevapcici under the broiler.

I even found a video on how to make them, although I couldn’t understand a word except “cevapcici,” I did see how they are formed, by a unique kitchen gadget, into what I would call a particularly unfortunate shape as they are not too pretty for the camera if you know what I mean. But, boy, are they ever delicious!

My butcher instructs me to pronounce all the c’s like a ch, so I sound like a Croat.

Che-Vap’-Chi-Chi.

He makes his with lamb and beef and spices although some also add pork to the mix.

You may recognize these famous Croats in food and wine respectively:

Lydia Bastianich and Mike Grgich.

I plan to serve a lot of cevapcici this summer (now that I can pronounce it), hot off the barbecue grill, maybe with a yogurt cucumber dip? If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and give them a try.

UPDATE:

TRY THIS CEVAPCICI FLATBREAD PIZZA TOO! Recipe here.