Bounty

August and September are the peak of Maine’s growing season.  One can go to the farmers market/into the garden and pick such variety of vegetables (and fruits!).  This time of year, I love eggplant.

I have loved eggplant since childhood celebration suppers of eggplant parmesan served alongside heaps of round tubes of spaghetti at Anthony’s Italian Restaurant.  Now I love eggplant because of my husband, K.  He lived in Greece for a year, and I joined him for a summer.  We ate Eggplant in the Oven whenever we could get it.  Tavernas routinely had large menus, of which generally a handful of items were actually available.  When Eggplant in the Oven was offered, we always accepted.  Slow cooked eggplant with tomatoes, oregano and chunks of salty feta, best after hours in a low oven.  

    We now grow eggplant in our small backyard garden.  We have grown beautiful, bulbous Italian eggplants in past years, but this year we’re keeping it simple with the smaller, slimmer, prolific Japanese eggplant.  In our climate we typically cover the plants with greenhouse plastic, outside, for the month of June and off and on through the summer and fall.  Eggplant and peppers love the heat, and increasing the heat even in small amounts by building microclimates increases their yields.  This year we never got around to the plastic (you know how that is in gardening!) but we still have some eggplant and peppers, just not the dearth of past summers.  

    Here’s a loose recipe for one of our favorite foods, good as a side dish, or a meal in and of itself when served with big slices of crusty bread.  These amounts are approximate, this is a forgiving dish.

Eggplant in the Oven

About 2-3 small eggplant, or 1 large

¼ cup of olive oil (or more, as needed)

salt to taste

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 tsps oregano

¼-½ tsp red pepper flakes (to taste)

About 1 ½- 2 cups of tomato sauce* or diced tomato

6 oz feta

Pre-heat the oven.  Cut the eggplant into large dice, do not peel. (If you prefer, you can put in a colander and salt to release moisture, though this isn’t necessary for this dish)  Saute eggplant in the olive oil over medium heat until softened, adding salt to taste, about 10-12 minutes.  Add garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes and saute until the flavors are released.  Add the diced tomato or tomato sauce to the pan, scrape into a 2 quart baking dish.  Sometimes K. adds additional olive oil at this point if it looks slightly dry. (Up to you and your olive oil preference)  Break feta into chunks over the top, cover with foil and bake.  The dish can be prepared in a low oven, about 325 for at least an hour or you can increase the heat to about 375, bake for 30 minutes, remove the foil and briefly broil before removing from the oven.  Allow to rest a few minutes before serving.

*Simple Tomato Sauce

I make this basic, unfussy sauce weekly during tomato season.  I do not peel or seed the tomatoes, nor do I use only paste tomatoes.  Therefore the sauce is quite watery, which doesn’t bother me, but may not be to everyone’s taste.

2 cloves garlic, sliced

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 pounds chopped tomatoes

½ teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

handful of basil leaves

Saute the garlic in warmed olive oil in a 4 quart saucepan, just until beginning to be golden (to not burn!).  Immediately add chopped tomatoes.  Stir, add sugar and salt.  Bring to a simmer.  Simmer as long as time allows (20 minutes to 1 hour +) adding in basil leaves.  If you want the sauce to be less chunky, blend it.