Recipes for Your Summer Eggplant
Last summer we shared our recipe for Ratatouille, which is quite different from most that we've seen. We still enjoy eggplant prepared in that manner, however we have also tried to broaden our use of this interesting vegetable. The Baked Eggplant Sicilian Style came from our friends Garland and Suzanne Marshall. When Allen sampled the dish at their house, he asked them to share the recipe. Suzanne notes that the recipe also works well with canned tomatoes.
We have encountered a few problems with eggplant. First, we are surprised at how poorly eggplant stores. Evidently it prefers a temperature of 50°, and therefore doesn't keep very well at room temperature or in the refrigerator. We have just learned to buy it and use it quickly. We are puzzled, though, about how you can tell if an eggplant is "ripe". We have had at least one unfortunate experience with an eggplant that ruined a recipe, and we are still unsure about the process for selecting a perfect eggplant. The debate about salting eggplant to remove the bitter taste still rages with opinions on both sides of the argument. We have found that salting, rinsing and drying the eggplant seems to cut down on the amount of oil that is needed in the cooking process.
