Thursday, January 8, 2009





Eggplant and leek pasta sauce, or Pat finally conquers eggplant





I knew that eventually I would come to terms with eggplant. It has been a long journey.
I have eaten wonderful dishes with eggplant, especially Thai, Chinese and Italian. But every time I have tried to cook eggplant, it was nasty. Nasty with a capital N.
You must understand that eggplant was not part of my heritage. I don't think that my parents or grandparents ever cooked it, or even grew it in their gardens.
I read. I watched TV shows. I thought I was doing it right. It still tasted nasty. I knew it didn’t have to.
It finally clicked. Here’s how.
First: At the store (thank you Alton Brown) pick out an eggplant that feels at least reasonably heavy for its size. I picked up a few that felt like piñatas. I'm pretty sure they would have tasted nasty no matter what I did. Probably where I went wrong before.
Second: Prep. I know I did this before and it didn't work, but this time it did. Peel the eggplant, slice it, put the slices in a colander or sieve and salt them. I have a wonderful sieve that fits over the sink. But I could have used a colander that fits over a bowl, as long as it wasn't touching the bottom. Give it an hour or so. The idea is to let some of the moisture in the eggplant seep out so it can absorb other things, like olive oil and flavor.
I couldn't help myself. I tasted a sliver of the raw eggplant even before salting it. It tasted like the inner rind of a watermelon -- you know, the part that you don't eat. I was not hopeful. But I gave it the hour. I accepted the idea that this process would help change the flavor.
Then put the slices on a grill or, if it is January like it is now, on your broiler pan and drizzle with copious amounts of olive oil. Let 'em brown. In my broiler, it took 10 minutes on one side, 3 minutes on the second side. That's the photo at at the top.
You can actually stop now and refrigerate, which is what I did. I also tasted the eggplant at this point and decided that, while it tasted completely different from the raw product, it still didn't taste great. And by now, the texture is soft and kind of uninteresting. So at this point, I was thinking, gee, I could put olive oil on bread and put it under the broiler and it would be better than this. Just so you know. Still not a big fan of eggplant. But wait.
The transformation: Put water on to boil for pasta, adding salt, of course. Clean and chop one leek. (See below, I'm not going into that again.) Sauté in 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil for a couple of minutes. Add about half a can of diced tomatoes. (See below for saving the other half, and for that matter, why I use canned tomatoes in January. Short answer: because it is January.) Chop up about six of the slices of eggplant, or about a cup, and add that to the skillet. Smush a clove of garlic, mince it and toss it in. Let that all simmer while you cook some pasta -- you may have to turn the skillet on low, depending on how long it takes the pasta to cook. Drain the pasta, pour the sauce over it. Grab a fork.
I amazed myself by not even adding grated parmesan to this. I mean, you could, and as you know, I usually would, and I even had it ready. I just didn't feel the need. Somehow, the leeks and tomatoes and garlic interacted with the eggplant to make it taste really good. I was amazed. I even repeated the experiment to make sure it wasn't a fluke. It tasted good again.
Also, this reheated really well, even in the truly lame microwave at work.
OK, I showed off for the photo with the Strascinati pasta. But if it looks like flower petals ... and by the way, it’s delicious.



Eggplant: We will see you again.

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This is me enjoying a limoncello in Rome on the last night of our trip to Italy. Funny thing is, I don't really like limoncello that much, but thought it would be great in a dessert. And wouldn't you know, The Barefoot Contessa just did a great fruit salad with limoncello. So now I can't. Oh, well.