Eggplant Salad
“No other vegetable is so content to abandon itself to your will,” Ruth Reichl wrote of eggplant in her 2015 cookbook, “My Kitchen Year.” Though if you’re skeptical, here’s one way to quickly gain some confidence: Start with her simple eggplant salad, which I’ve made so many times since first reading about it that I’ve lost track.
Use a fork to prick the eggplant, then singe it right on the flame of a gas stove, or under the broiler, until the skin is charred and the meat is tender — don’t baby it now, really let it smolder! Be patient — eggplant is firm and spongy when undercooked, but give it a little more time and it shifts over to tender, luxurious and creamy.
Peel away the burned skin, and mash the soft eggplant meat into a bowl. In Ruth’s recipe, she adds fish sauce (you can use a vegetarian fish sauce), lime juice, a pinch of sugar, garlic and chile, and once it’s chilled, covers it with herbs. But this technique of submitting the eggplant whole to a flame, then skinning it, is a great way to start any number of dishes.
Try seasoning with sesame oil, rice vinegar, raw chiles and cilantro. Or chopped tomatoes, red wine vinegar, capers, garlic and parsley. Add tahini, lemon juice and zest, and garlic. Once you can confidently sear a whole eggplant, you can certainly sauté, roast or even steam it.
INGREDIENTS
Yield: 6 servings as an appetizer
- 1 ½pounds long, thin Asian or baby eggplants
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 lime
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon chile flakes
- Chopped cilantro or mint leaves
PREPARATION
Step 1
Prick the eggplants all over with a fork and singe them over the burner of a gas stove, turning constantly, for about 10 minutes until the skin is black and blistered. Allow to cool.
Step 2
Carefully peel the eggplant skin. (This can be fussy, but you want to get all the skin off.) Pull the eggplant into strips and lay them in a shallow bowl.
Step 3
Mix the fish sauce with the lime juice, the sugar and a couple of tablespoons of water. Add the minced garlic and chile flakes. Pour over the eggplant and marinate in the refrigerator for a few hours. When ready to serve, garnish with a few leaves of chopped cilantro or mint.
Charred
In David Tanis’s recipe for a Turkish-style eggplant salad, you char the whole vegetable over charcoal, on a gas flame or under a broiler, then peel away the burned skin. Simply add garlic, lemon, yogurt, and mint to the warm, roughly chopped eggplant, along with a glug of olive oil. It’s perfect with warm pita bread and crudités. Note: Pomegranate molasses, made from boiling down the tart juice, is a wonderful addition, but it’s fine to skip it and compensate with more lemon juice instead.
This tart Turkish-style salad is meant to be served with triangles of warm pita or other flatbread for dipping. At the market, choose eggplants that are firm and shiny; they will taste sweeter and have fewer seeds. Make the salad several hours or up to a day in advance. Pomegranate molasses can be found at Middle Eastern groceries.
INGREDIENTS
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
- 2 pounds medium-sized eggplants
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish
- ½ cup plain whole yogurt
- 1 teaspoon crumbled dried mint
- 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses, optional
- 1 tablespoon roughly chopped mint, for garnish
- 1 tablespoon roughly chopped parsley, for garnish
- Red pepper flakes, for garnish
PREPARATION
Step 1
Put the whole eggplants on a barbecue grate over hot coals. Turning frequently, cook until the skin is completely blackened and charred and the eggplants begin to soften and collapse, about 10 minutes. Alternatively, cook them directly on a stovetop burner or under the broiler. Set aside to cool.
Step 2
Cut eggplants in quarters top to bottom and carefully separate the flesh from the skin with a spoon or paring knife. Discard the charred skin. Chop the flesh roughly with a large knife or in a food processor and put it in a fine-meshed sieve to drain excess liquid.
Step 3
Transfer eggplants to a mixing bowl. Add salt, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, yogurt and dried mint. Mix well, then set aside to rest for a few minutes. Check season and adjust.
Step 4
Put mixture in a low serving bowl. Drizzle with pomegranate molasses, if using, and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Sprinkle with chopped mint and parsley and a pinch of red pepper flakes.
Roasted
You can peel and chop a big haul of fresh tomatoes to make David Tanis’s pasta alla Norma — a great use for any of the lumpy, bruised, on-sale tomatoes you sometimes find at the market — but good quality canned tomatoes work well, too. And here’s a great hack if you’re not in the mood to stand and fry in batches: Dice the eggplant, toss with oil and roast at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes before adding it back to the sauce.
INGREDIENTS
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- Salt and pepper
- 2garlic cloves peeled
- Pinch of crushed red pepper
- 12basil leaves, plus a few basil sprigs for garnish
- 4cups peeled, chopped tomatoes with juice, fresh or canned
- 3 or 4 small eggplants (about 2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1pound pasta, such as penne, rigatoncini, or spaghetti
- 1cup coarsely grated ricotta salata
- ¼cup toasted bread crumbs, preferably homemade
PREPARATION
Step 1
Make a quick tomato sauce: Put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened about 10 minutes.
Step 2
Stir in garlic, red pepper, and basil leaves and cook for 1 minute. Add tomatoes, stir, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and let the sauce simmer gently for 20 minutes until slightly thickened. Taste and adjust seasoning. Set aside. (Sauce may be prepared up to 2 days in advance.)
Step 3
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Turn the heat to low and cover the pot until it’s time to cook the pasta.
Step 4
Put a wide cast-iron pan over medium-high heat. Add 4 tablespoons olive oil to coat the surface of the pan. When the oil is wavy, test by adding a cube of eggplant. It should begin to sizzle and brown immediately. Fill the pan with a single layer of eggplant cubes. Turn eggplant with a spatula or tongs and brown nicely on all sides. Lower heat as necessary to maintain an even temperature; if the pan is too hot, the eggplant will burn.
Step 5
Remove the cooked eggplant to a plate and continue to fry the remaining eggplant in batches, adding more oil as necessary. Season the finished eggplant with salt and pepper. (Alternatively, roast the eggplant on a baking sheet at 400 degrees, lightly drizzled with oil, until cooked and nicely browned about 20 minutes.)
Step 6
To assemble and serve, boil pasta until al dente, leaving it a little firmer than normal. Bring the tomato sauce to a simmer. Add eggplant to sauce and gently stir to combine. Reserve a cup of pasta cooking water, then drain pasta and add to sauce. Using 2 wooden spoons or tongs, toss pasta and sauce, and let cook 1 minute more. Thin sauce if necessary with a little pasta cooking water.
Step 7
Transfer to a warmed wide pasta bowl. Sprinkle with grated ricotta salata and bread crumbs. Garnish with torn or whole basil leaves and a drizzle of olive oil, if desired.
