The weather we’re having in the northeast has really put a damper on my cooking game. The frigid weather, near-constant snow falling out of the sky and the dirty and slippery sidewalks make me want to sit under a blanket in my badly-heated apartment and never get up, never mind leave the house. In order to not go stir-crazy, I’ve managed to do a complete organizational overhaul of my home (inspired by Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up) so that it now looks like a minimal but highly neurotic individual (right on!) lives there.
That’s all well and good, but a girl still needs to eat. Walking the 5 ½ blocks to Fairway has many times been simply out of the question given my waning tolerance for the elements, so I’ve been relying on my corner market, which sports the absolutely bizarre but somewhat endearing moniker “You Don’t Know Nothing Produce.” I don’t get it, but I sure do like to have it there in frozen times like the present. It does require a little creativity and planning ahead on my part, but a healthy combo of the corner store and Amazon Prime has really allowed me to both eat well and slowly become a recluse.
This eggplant dish is a prime example of the type of meals I’ve been relying on these days. It requires very few ingredients (all available at the aforementioned corner store!) and it’s versatile in its serving possibilities. Room temperature appetizer served with baguette slices? Check. Warm vegetable side dish to the rest of a meal? Check. Topping for pasta? Also check. I ate this for several days straight in a number of disguises and never got tired of it. Oh, and it took about 30 minutes to make. Win, win win.
The preparation goes a little like this. Slice eggplant (doesn’t even need to be beautiful), slice onions and chop garlic (also don’t need to be beautiful!). Brown the eggplant in a pan, saute the onions in the very same pan, and add some pantry ingredients that miraculously create a sweet-and-sour element that’s so tasty and fantastic and classic Italian. It’s actually pretty unbelievable that so few ingredients can create something that tastes so complicated.
If you, like me, are stuck in Snowtown, USA and suffering from weather-related blues, don’t despair. Run (carefully) to your nearest market, pick up a few veggies and before you know it you’ll have a bowl of pure comfort on your hands.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 Japanese or small Italian eggplants, sliced on the diagonal (each slice about 1/2 inch wide), or 1 large eggplant, sliced and salted for 30 minutes in a colander to remove bitterness
- 1 small red onion, cut in halves and then sliced
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 12 large fresh mint leaves, sliced or snipped width-wise into narrow ribbons
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Instructions
- Heat half of the olive oil on medium-high heat in a wide saucepan. Add the eggplant slices to the pan and brown them evenly on both sides. If you can't fit all the eggplant in at once, don't smush them- do two batches instead. It's important that each slice gets properly golden-brown. As the eggplant cooks, it will soak up the oil, so add the other half of the olive oil when you turn the slices. (If it seems like the oil is really disappearing, you can always add more - up to another 1/4 cup). Set aside the finished slices on a plate, but don't discard the cooking oil.
- Add the onion to the oil in which you've just cooked the eggplant and saute for 2 minutes. Try not to let the pieces color, but don't worry too much if they color up a little bit.
- Add the honey to the onions and stir together so the honey bubbles and caramelizes. Deglaze with the vinegar, and let the mixture reduce by half. Add the tomato sauce.
- Return the eggplant to the sauce and mix it in. Simmer on low heat for 5 minutes, so that the eggplant slices absorb the flavor of the sauce; they should soften but mostly retain their shape. Remove the pan from the heat.
- Once the eggplant has cooled slightly, add the mint and mix together. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If you want a slightly more sour taste, add a little more vinegar. Place in a serving bowl, sprinkle the Parmigiano-Reggiano over the top, and serve.
Notes
Adapted from Urban Italian
