War with Eggplant

The battle to use our veggies was a tough one tonight.  Eggplant!  Not that I don't like eggplant, but eggplant six weeks in a row gets old.  I guess I am slightly less tolerant of eggplant than others because when we were first married, my husband had planted eggplant in our backyard.  He was doing all of the cooking at the time and in my memory, fixed nothing but eggplant until I swore I would never touch another eggplant again!  I'm exaggerating a little, but besides ratatouille (which gets old real quick in my opinion) and eggplant parmesan (which takes a long time to make and is very rich) what else are you supposed to do with the little suckers?  I found a recipe tonight which uses eggplant and also our plethora of tomatoes.  Best serve it over pasta as it wasn't very filling on its own.  If you have any ideas for eggplant, please let me know.  Summer isn't over yet which means we have at least 4 more weeks of eggplant coming!

Roasted Eggplant Casserole  adapted from The French Market:  More Recipes from a French Kitchen by Joanne Harries and Fran Warde.

4 garlic cloves, peeled

6 tablespoons olive oil

4 small to medium eggplant

4 large, ripe tomatoes

Sea salt, to taste

Black pepper to taste

15 oz. can of vegetable stock

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Rub an earthenware baking dish (about 10 inches square) with 1 garlic clove and 1 Tbs. olive oil.  Dice the remaining garlic and sprinkle a little in the bottom of the pan.  Slice the eggplant and the tomatoes about 1/2 inch thick.  Put all the vegetable ends in the bottom of the dish and arrange the slices in alternating layers seasoning with garlic, salt and pepper in between each layer.  Pour the stock over the dish and drizzle with the remaining oil.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Reduce the heat to 325 degrees and bake until the vegetables are tender, about 45 minutes more.  Serve hot or cold over pasta.