Eggplant

Asian Eggplant

Without a doubt, one of my favorite summer vegetables is eggplant. Although Karen is Italian in heritage, and we love Italian vegetables (look for an upcoming post on San Marzano tomatoes) we greatly prefer the Asian eggplant to the Italian varieties. The Asian variety is slimmer with a tapered end compared to pear shaped Italian fruit. What makes Asian eggplant the best is the seeds, or lack thereof. Unless picked early, Italian eggplant starts getting big seeds inside the fruit. These seeds tend to be bitter, especially when cooked. Asian eggplant, meanwhile has fewer and smaller seeds.

Asian eggplant is used the same way as its Italain cousin. We roast it in the oven with other veggies, marinate it with pesto and herbs, grill it with zucchini and bread it and bake it or deep fry it. However, by far our favorite way to cook eggplant is to make eggplant balls.

Just peel and cube your eggplant and roast it with olive oil and salt until very tender. Eggplant, I think, has an unpleasant palate when undercooked, so make sure it is very soft when you take it out of the oven. Let the eggplant cool and put it in a food processor with a clove of garlic and a pinch of red pepper. Drizzle in olive oil while pulsing on the food processor until smooth. Then, add bread crumbs and process. Add enough bread crumbs to get the consistency of dry meatballs. Take a large tablespoon of the mixture and roll into a meatball shape. Roll in flour and fry in a pan or bake in the oven at 400 degrees until cooked through. You can use them just like meatballs on pasta or in a grinder (hero sandwich). We often make dozens and dozens of eggplant balls, let them cool and bag them up. They freeze well and we love taking out a dozen for a hearty pasta dinner on a cold night January!