Cooking with Eggplant

I’ve been on a real eggplant kick recently. Eggplant has been in season and readily available at the farmer’s market so I’ve been taking advantage. I’ve been using a combination or regular and Japanese and Chinese eggplant. Japanese and Chinese eggplant are long and thin and I find the flavor abut sweeter and more delicate.

My favorite new way of cooking eggplant is in the oven. Inspired by Ottolenghi’s Plenty, I slice them 1/2 inch thick, generously saturate them in olive oil, salt and pepper and cook at 450 degrees F for 30 minutes. This way, they are incredibly soft, juicy and bursting with flavor. When I grill eggplant, I often feel like I lose the juicy eggplant flavor and gain a charcoal flavor, which I find less appealing.

The recipe on the left is from Ottolenghi plenty and is drizzled with an intense garlic sauce that is bright and spicy. The recipe on the right is drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled generously with green and purple basil. Both of these dishes are juicy and burst with flavor. They are also surprisingly easy to make— the oven does most of the work and can be ready in under an hour.