2 February 2014

BAKED EGGPLANT TOMATO & MOZZARELLA

A couple of years ago I went to Sicily. The food was fantastic; far better than I possibly imagined it might be. We ate superbly everywhere we went and had amazing meals of fresh seafood, the most delicious pork feast imaginable and enjoyed some superb wines.

One evening we stayed on a olive estate near to Ragusa and our party of ten were invited to help prepare the meal. My job was to cook the eggplants. They were ripe, tiny dark purple orbs of deliciousness and were destined to be simmered in a fresh tomato sauce with freshly picked basil from the state gardens. The essence of summer!

Such an opportunity to learn rarely comes my way as I first had to slit each eggplant and then fry it in a large dish of olive oil until tender. Since then I have always, always fried my eggplant, whether whole, quartered, sliced or cut into chunks, before finishing it in sauce. The resulting dish is deliciously flavoured and there's never hint of dryness or wooliness that eggplant sometimes suffers from.

Above I have photographed eggplant slices that have been fried in plenty of lighter style olive oil, interspersed with slices of tomato fresh from the garden and Massimo's fabulous mozzarella from Matakana Farmers Market.

All that remains is to pour over half a jar of Sabato's tomato and basil pasta sauce, some salt and pepper, and bake the dish in a 180C oven for 25-30 minutes.

Lovely on its own or to accompany chicken, lamb, beef or pork.