Here come the Eggplants!

Eggplant. I don't think I ever ate it growing up, and rarely ate it as an adult before becoming a vegetarian. However, in the past few years I've discovered just how great they are at adding real substance to a meal. What's even better is that the kids are big fans of the eggplant dishes I've made. That's a huge deal.

So July, it seems, is when the eggplants start rolling in from the CSA. Also about this time come the tomatoes. And not just from the CSA, but also from backyard gardens. Our friend Kenneth gave us an eggplant and some roma tomatoes from his little garden just last week. Looking at those veggies and looking at what came in the CSA shipment today, I decided it was time to make one of our family's favorite recipes: Eggplant Pomodoro!

My wife, Amy, actually gets credit for discovering this recipe. We have both cooked it with great success. The original source recipe was a little more complicated, but we've always made the stripped-down version, and it's been a huge hit with everyone in the family. As such, what I present here is our personal take on the dish. It's fairly simple, although, as with any recipe, there is room for fun experimentation and variation.

Normally I cook what I think of as a "double batch". The recipe below is for a single batch. The single batch will feed four people if no one goes back for seconds. If you want enough for a family-sized meal with seconds or leftovers, however, I recommend a double batch (stay tuned for tips on cooking the double batch later in this post).

Without further ado, here are the secrets of...
Easy Eggplant Pomodoro

INGREDIENTS
1 medium-sized Italian eggplant, cut into 1/2" cubes (the kind you typically find in a grocery store)
4-6 roma tomatoes, cut into quarters, eighths, or just diced (or an equivalent amount of other tomatoes)
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp red-wine vinegar
3/4 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
pasta of choice to serve over (we always use angel hair)
shredded parmesan cheese

COOKING DIRECTIONS
1. Heat water for pasta while chopping eggplant and tomatoes.
3. Heat the olive oil  in a large frying pan or wok (I love my wok!) over medium-high heat. Add eggplant and stir-fry until starting to soften, about 5 minutes.
4. Add 2 cloves of pressed or minced garlic and cook for 1 minute.
5. Add tomatoes, red-wine vinegar, salt, and pepper. Cook at least 5 more minutes, until the tomatoes start to break down. Stir a lot. This is also a good time to put pasta in the boiling water.
6. Serve eggplant and tomato mixture over pasta. Top with parmesan cheese.

So, that's the basics. Now, here are the secrets.

COOKING THE EGGPLANT

It took me a while to figure out how to fry the eggplant properly for this recipe. The thing is, raw eggplant acts like a sponge when you put it in a pan of oil. So much so, that only about half the eggplant seems oily, while the rest seems dry and not cooking as fast. I used to add extra oil and then more extra oil while cooking the eggplant. That felt right at first, but when the eggplant was done cooking, it would be really oily. It turns out that as the eggplant cooks, it shrinks, and that sponged-up oil gets pushed out, allowing it to cook the other pieces of eggplant.

So here's what you do: don't panic when the eggplant soaks up the oil. Just keep stirring it around. After about 2-3 minutes, the oil will have come out of the pieces that first soaked it up, and gotten spread onto the other pieces. Just keep stirring and frying! After five minutes, everything will be fried pretty evenly. If you have an especially big eggplant, an extra tablespoon of oil might be in order, but resist the urge to add oil until you can see it lining the bottom of the pan while cooking the eggplant in the first few minutes. In the end, that will be too much oil.

Double batch tip: If you make a double batch, cook half of the eggplant, add half the garlic, finish cooking it, and then remove it from the pan.  Cook the second half of the eggplant separately, adding the second half of the garlic at the appropriate time. When the second half (plus garlic) is done, put the first half back in the pan, then add all the other ingredients and follow the recipe as normal.

TOMATOES
The original recipe called for quartering the roma tomatoes. If you like big bites of cooked-sweet tomatoes, then go this route. I, however, prefer the dish with the flavors mixed together a little more. As such, I usually cut a typical roma tomato into 6-8 pieces, depending on size. Tonight's dish had a few grape tomatoes thrown in as well, because I had those from the CSA and there weren't quite enough roma's from Kenneth's garden for the double batch.

EXTRA INGREDIENTS
This is a recipe that can accept extra ingredients pretty easily. We commonly add mushrooms: usually baby bellas cut into 1/2" or smaller pieces. I add these in when I add the garlic, so they get stir-fried a little but not too much. I've also done this recipe with onions, although it's not part of the "family staple" version. Onions go in early with the eggplant so they can soften up. As for seasoning, I recently did a batch with fresh basil that I put in with the tomatoes. Good stuff. The original recipe also calls for sprinkling some fresh parsley over the top, but I only do that if I happen to have it on hand. It's definitely not a necessity.

HOW SAUCY DO YOU WANT IT?

The last cooking step of this recipe is really all about personal preference. How much do you want your tomatoes to break down? How much do you want that eggplant stewed and softened? I find that I like it cooked longer than the 5 minutes that the recipe calls for, although part of that may be the nature of cooking the double batch. If you want the tomatoes a little less cooked, feel free to stop after just a couple of minutes of having all the ingredients in the pan. Or, if you really want things cooked down, feel free to keep on cooking it--just be sure to keep an eye on it stir it now and then.

So there you have it! Another great thing about this recipe is that the ingredients are easily available in almost any grocery store and the prep and cooking techniques are pretty basic. Yet despite that, it is extremely tasty. The leftovers also reheat nicely, so if you cook a big batch (which is easy to do), you can zap yourself a plate of leftovers a day or two later and lose very little in terms of flavor and enjoyment.

It also looks pretty good on a plate.

Now go forth and eat eggplant!