This hearty Hungarian vegetable ragout is made with a base of rendered lard or bacon fat, fried Hungarian wax peppers, tomatoes, onions, ground paprika, salt, and sometimes garlic. Lecsó can be eaten on its own with bread or with a side of rice for lunch, but it can also be served as an accompaniment to meat mains such as pork schnitzel or roasted chicken.

Lecsó itself is much akin to the French ratatouille, and though this versatile dish is prepared in numerous variations, it is said that the very best lecsó is cooked over an open fire in a bogrács, the traditional Hungarian cast iron cauldron.