If you follow Alison Roman, you know that her latest recipe, Eggplant Parmesan, is making some serious waves on the Internet. Ironically, I had already planned to make another one of her eggplant recipes on the day that her Parm became the latest “It” dish. I could chalk this up to coincidence, but I want to believe that I’m slowly being elevated to her culinary zeitgeist.
Either way, eggplants are clearly the vegetable of this cultural moment, and I’m not one bit mad about it.
My only prior experience cooking with eggplant is a poor man’s ratatouille. This long-roasted eggplant is most definitely a step up. More importantly, this recipe let eggplant be the star of the show.
There are three elements that make this a dynamic dish:
Eggplants cut in half and roasted cut-side down in a pool of olive oil. Alison instructs you to cut a few ½-inch slits into the meat of the eggplant before turning it over, presumably to help steam escape and ensure a more crystallized surface. Well, it worked. The eggplant was perfectly roasted, with a subtly crunchy exterior and endlessly creamy interior. If anything, this recipe made me believe that eggplant doesn’t need to just be a soggy, anonymous contributor to pad thai. (You know what I’m talking about, right? How many times have you had a veggie Pad Thai and someone asked - “what do we think this is?” referring to an unknown limpy brownish- yellow blob in the noodles, and you say, “maybe it’s eggplant?”) (Just me? Cool.) …
Chile & garlic croutons, oh baby these were fantastic. Similar to Alison’s breadcrumb approach, torn pieces of fresh bread are toasted in olive oil in a skillet, but this time, she adds finely chopped garlic and a thinly sliced red chile to the mix. This added the right amount of heat to balance out the milky meat of the eggplants. Plus, I will always love the texture of a fresh crouton, no matter what it’s paired with.
Labne with preserved lemon. I’ve still yet to purchase labne, and, I likely never will. Cow’s dairy does a number on my body, and I’m very satisfied with the Greek yogurt/sour cream/labne alternative of Goat’s milk yogurt. I mixed the yogurt with salt, pepper, lemon juice and quick-preserved lemon, and then spooned it over the bottom of the serving bowls. This tangy sauce is the base for the eggplant.
Never before would I have said that I’d serve eggplant at a dinner party. This recipe changed my mind. I would absolutely serve this as a main course with a side of grains or roasted broccolini.
Cheers to more eggplants in my future! A future, until now, I would never have imagined.
28 recipes cooked, 197 to go.
