I don’t cook eggplants as often as I should. I think I was traumatized by eggplants earlier in my cooking life. Whenever a recipe called for them, they just seemed like too much trouble. Salting them first which didn’t seem to make much sense because I never quite understood what happened to all that salt. Blotting it away with too many paper towels just seemed wasteful.
Then there was the whole frying thing. Eggplants always seemed to absorb WAY too much expensive olive oil. And for what? The result was always kind of greasy, limp, mushy disks or cubes of grayish vegetable.
There was a brief period when I discovered frozen eggplant, one of the few things in the frozen food aisle at the Italian supermarket that was both useful and tasted good. I’d use them to make a quick eggplant parmigiana or even through them into tomato sauce to sneak vegetables into Sophie and Emma’s otherwise pasta-centric meals.
But for the most part eggplants haven’t been part of my go-to repertoire until this summer. Because this is the summer of our magnificent vegetable garden. While we usually have a so-so to good harvest all summer long (heavy on tomatoes and zucchini) this is the year when EVERYTHING is on overdrive. Including eggplants. Because of the wet winter and even damper spring, followed by a coolish June our entire orto is like an enchanted garden. We’re finally coming out from under the zuchini tsunami and are currently experiencing a flash flood of tomatoes.
And even our usually meager and sad patch of eggplants are getting into the act. While in past years I’ve usually harvested 3 to 4 miserable, dry, and bitter purple orbs, this year they are plump, sweet and just keep coming. And they have definitely cured me of my eggplant-phobia.
A few things I’ve come to realize this summer when it comes to me and my eggplants:
- Fresher is better: when they eggplants are this fresh you don’t really have to salt them.
- Baked is better: I’ve given up on frying eggplant. It’s just too much trouble and even if, when done correctly (which I’ve long since learned how to do) they still use a ton of oil. Also? Who wants to be standing over hot oil on an August afternoon?
- Eggplants and tomatoes are the perfect pairing: I know this may seem obvious, but rather than go the eggplant parmigiana route, which pairs cooked down tomatoes and cheese, I’ve lightened things up, and have been pairing copious amounts of chopped fresh tomatoes with any eggplant that will stay still
The following recipe has been on lunch rotation for the last few weeks and is extremely easy. I’ve used any kind and size of eggplant, including small white ones that Domenico planted. They get cut in half, stuffed with garlic, brushed with olive oil and then baked till soft and silky. Once out of the oven they get topped with chopped tomatoes which you can season any way you’d like. Salt and olive oil are givens, but I’ve also been using all sorts of fresh herbs including basil and parsley. I’d use fresh coriander if I had some. A few times I’ve also added a chopped red onion or shallot.
We’ve been eating this all summer long, for lunch, with some crusty bread and either mozzarella or goat cheese. I said the recipe serves six, and you can figure on either one small eggplant per person, or a half of a larger one. And while we’ve been eating them as a main course, I think they would also make a nice antipasto for a bigger meal.
eggplant + tomatoes
Yield 6
Ingredients
- Six small or 3 medium eggplants
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliceds
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pound / 1/2 kilo of tomatoes
- fresh herbs (basil, parsley or coriander
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350F/ 180C
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Slice the eggplants in half, lengthwise. If the eggplant still have their stem end attached, leave them, just slicing through them.
Using a sharp knife, cut into each eggplant, on the cut side, in a cross hatch pattern, being very careful not to cut all the way through to the skin. You are making slits to stick the garlic into.
Gently insert the garlic slices into the slits of the eggplant. How much garlic you use is up to you. I like it pretty garlicky!
Lay the eggplant on the baking sheet, cut side up. Drizzle with olive oil, rubbing it around with your hands. Season the eggplant liberally with salt, and place in oven. Cook until eggplant is very tender and golden. This can take up to one hour. ( a bit less for smaller eggplant.) A fork inserted into the eggplant should go in very easily.
Remove and let cool to room temperature.
In the meantime chop the tomatoes into bite sized pieces and place in a medium sized bowl. Add 1 teaspoon salt and 2 to 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Add the chopped herb and stir. Let sit for at least 20 minutes.
When ready to serve place the eggplant on a serving platter and cover each one with heaping spoonfuls of tomato, drizzling the accumulated juices as well.
If preparing ahead of time you can roast the eggplant and store, covered, in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving and don't perpare the tomatoes until 20 minutes before serving.
Oh, yes, Elizabeth……neither you nor I will have been the first to have noticed that eggplants will, when sauteed or fried, soak up as much oil as you can give them. It’s rather like asking Richard Burton or Dylan Thomas if he’d like “a” drink if they came to visit. They just don’t know when to say “no” or “That’s enough, thank you”.
I (here in North Carolina) grow both the bigass purple variety and the very beautiful “Asian” varieties. They’re extraordinarily successful/productive. I never salt mine in the least (like you, I;m adverse to going through a roll of paper towels for one batch of eggplants)…..but, then, I don’t leave them hanging on the plant when water’s scarce, nor do I let them grow longer than 8 inches, at most. They’re never “bitter”. I would never buy them at grocery stores, for obvious reasons. they’re fine at the Farmer’s Market.
Not entirely by the way?……I have a longtime-vegetarian friend who makes candied eggplant strips. She makes a great fuss over them at her dinner-parties, and you have to eat them when at her house during the Summer. She roasts them (unpeeled) in the oven, and then dips them in chocolate and granulated sugar. She claims that it’s HER “Recipe” (!!!!!!) I’ve never quite understood the point……they’re not BAD or necessarily nauseating, and they’re certainly vegetarian…..but isn’t a strip of cardboard, dipped in Hershey’s syrup also vegetarian?.
As for zucchini?….surely you know Garrison Keillor’s old joke about life in small-town Lake Woebegone,Minnesota…..where you never have to lock your car except during the months of July, and August? Otherwise, you’ll come out in the morning to find that neighbors have filled the entire backseat with zucchini that they can’t bear to simply throw away……
Many thanks for your always invigorating and genuinely lively blog,…..you’re a fine writer…….
David Terry
Quail Roost Farm,
Rougemont, NC
USA
I always salt aubergines as well as courgettes. It extracts water from them, and after blotting dry, when frying, they don’t absorb too much oil.
I made this recipe last night for my Italian parents-in-law with much success! They loved it! It’s so simple, yet so delicious. thank you for the idea!
Glad it found love!!
HI, am making this dish today and was wondering, can you use couscous to this dish, instead of bread for example?
Anna-Karin in Sweden
You mean can you eat it with cous cous on the side instead of bread? Yes, sure. There is no bread in the recipe itself, so whatever else you have with it is just fine.
I am having a dinner party tomorrow night, This will be on the menu.
As always, so love your gorgeous plates.
Hope every one loves it!!
Hi, Elizabeth,
I made this dish for the book club last evening and it was a great success, everyone loved it! Now I’m going to share the recipe also with my youngest brother in Ireland.
Mind yourself,
Anne
Learned to microwave eggplant from Chinese cook book so less oil is absorbed when using it in recipe – 8 minute max or less