Saturday, September 13, 2014

Eggplant, Tomato, and Onion Gratin

Tuesday 9 September
The Chez Panisse Vegetables book calls this a gratin, but the recipe contains no cheese.  That's just crazy, so we corrected it.
Eggplant, Tomato, and Onion (Real, Genuine) Gratin
3 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
leaves from 2-3 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf

3 medium Asian eggplants (we used 6 little white ones, which need to be peeled, cause their skin is tough)
3 ripe tomatoes
salt and pepper
ca. 1 cup grated cheese
breadcrumbs
Sweat the onions and garlic in oil for 5 minutes until soft, with the thyme, bay, and salt and pepper. 
Peel and slice the eggplants into quarter-inch rounds, and the tomatoes slightly thicker. 
Grease a baking dish, and preheat the oven to 400º.
Spread the onions on the bottom of the baking dish, and cover with overlapping rows of alternate tomato and eggplant slices (we actually did a bottom layer of eggplant, topped by a layer of tomato).  Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with a little oil.
Cover and bake until eggplant is soft, which was about an hour (sounds of hunger rumbles here).   

Then we said, "cheese, please!" and added grated ricotta salata and parmesan and a sprinkle of breadcrumbs to the top, with a droozle of oil on top of that.  We uncovered the dish and baked for 15 minutes more to brown the top.

This tasted good and made a full meal for two, but we were ravenous by the time it was ready.  Next time, we'll save time and roast the eggplant rounds on a baking sheet until softened, top each with a slice of tomato and a mound of cheese, and toast them into individual eggplant parmegianas.

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