Briam is what lands on a Greek table in August, when the oven is on anyway and the garden is producing more vegetables than anyone can eat: aubergine, courgette, potato, tomato — sliced, doused in plenty of olive oil and baked until everything is soft and the top has taken on dark edges.
It is not a bake in the northern European sense. No béchamel, no cheese on top, nothing that holds the vegetables together. The only thing binding it is the oil and the tomato juice. Which is why briam is also the most honest recipe for judging an olive oil: you can still taste it after 80 minutes in the oven.
Serves 4 as a main, 6 as a side. 30 minutes of work, 75 minutes in the oven.
| Amount | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 2 | Aubergines (about 600 g) |
| 3 | Courgettes (about 600 g) |
| 4 | Floury potatoes (about 700 g) |
| 2 | Onions |
| 3 | Garlic cloves |
| 400 g | Chopped tomatoes or passata |
| 150 ml | Extra virgin olive oil |
| 1 tbsp | Dried oregano |
| 1 bunch | Flat-leaf parsley |
| 150 ml | Water |
| — | Salt, black pepper |
Heat the oven to 190 °C (375 °F) top and bottom heat. Use a wide, shallow dish — ideally 30 × 40 cm. The larger the surface, the more vegetables lie side by side instead of on top of each other, and the better the result.
Cut aubergines, courgettes and potatoes into slices about 5 mm thick. Onions into rings, garlic into thin slivers. You no longer need to salt and press aubergines — modern varieties aren’t bitter. With very large, ripe ones you still can.
Spread the potato slices on the bottom; they need the most heat. Then aubergine, then courgette, then onion and garlic. Season every layer with salt, pepper and a little oregano. Drizzle oil between the layers, not only on top — otherwise the middle stays dry.
Pour the tomatoes or passata over the vegetables, mixed with the water. Liquid should come up about a third of the height. Swirl the dish rather than stirring — the layering should survive.
Cover with parchment for the first 40 minutes. Then uncover and bake another 35–40 minutes, until the liquid is almost gone and the top layer has dark edges. If there is still a lot of liquid after 50 minutes, finish 15 minutes at 210 °C.
Take it out and leave it 15 minutes. Briam is good hot, better warm, and best the next day — cold from the fridge with bread, it is a dish of its own in Greece.
150 ml of oil for one tray of vegetables sounds like a lot, but it is the point of the recipe: the oil is the sauce. It carries the tomato juice, it binds the flavours, and it is what makes briam juicy rather than dry.
Eighty minutes at 190 °C calls for an oil that stays stable. A robust oil from a later harvest holds up without turning bitter — our litre bottle is made for exactly this. If you roast and bake a lot in summer, the storage pack works out cheaper.
Four days in the fridge in a closed dish. Reheat at 160 °C for about 20 minutes with a splash of water and an extra tablespoon of oil. It freezes, but the potatoes go soft and mealy — afterwards better used as a base for soup.
Only visually. There is no binder, no sauce and no cheese. Briam is vegetables braised in the oven, and the oil is the only thing connecting the ingredients.
Too much liquid and too little heat at the end. Always bake the last 15 minutes uncovered, at 210 °C if needed. The dish matters too: a deep one collects juice, a wide one evaporates it.
Yes, and many people prefer it. It settles overnight and tastes as good cold with bread as it does warm.
A robust oil with a high polyphenol content. It has to survive 80 minutes of oven heat and still taste of olives.
