Eggplant w/ Tomato Mint Sauce

[emily]

Thank you so much to Althea for including this on her menu this week! This recipe came from epicurious. Eggplant w/ Tomato-Mint Sauce and Goat Cheese (http://food.epicurious.com/run/recipe/view?id=4975)

All I have to say is YUM! WOW! First of all, it's super easy to prepare. You turn the oven on to preheat. Slice 2 eggplant into rather thick slices. Plop them on a cookie sheet coated w/ cooking spray. Throw a skillet on the stove and add half a chopped onion (which I happened to already have left over). By this time the oven should be preheated and you toss the eggplant in. While the onion sautes chop 3 cloves of garlic and then toss that into the skillet. Quickly chop a small handful of mint and oregano. Toss that in to the skillet along with a can of whole tomatoes. At some point turn the eggplant over. By the time the slices are roasted your sauce is also ready. Layer it all in a pan, top it with goat cheese, back into the oven. While it's heating, you've got time to empty the dishwasher.

Ok, so maybe I'm a little too into multi tasking :o All I know is that within an hour of walking through the door I was eating a meal that was worthy of company. The flavors are so fresh. You can just barely taste the mint and the goat cheese is a great foil. We sopped up the sauce with left over walnut rosemary bread (CL 10/02). I can't wait for left overs!

:)

Emily

[Kuvy]

WOW! Emily, thank you for posting this review.
Do you peel the eggplant?
Also, I don't have any fresh oregano - did you make it with dried or fresh?

This sounds like it would be yummy with couscous... ooh maybe even with polenta!
:)
:)

[Peggy]

Another interesting eggplant recipe to try! I'm collecting these recipes for when DD is at camp this summer. That's when I get to experiment with all of the things she doesn't like to eat. Thanks for pointing this out!

Peggy

[Tiger]

Thanks Emily! This recipe has all the fresh herbs I just planted. Now if I could just get all these herbs to grow.......Maybe if it stops snowing here and my windowbox actually gets some sun.:(

[Alethea]

I rearranged the order of my meals this week, and also made this last night. I would agree that it's delightfully easy and quite delicious! I used a little more mint, because I had some to use up and I really like the flavor, and used the fresh oregano I had on hand instead of dried (tripled the amount). Kuvy, the recipe actually calls for dried, so no worries. I also didn't bake my eggplant slices at quite as high a temperature as the recipe called for (500), and they still turned golden brown very quickly and cooked up perfect in the sauce.

I served this with some roasted shallots and green beans tossed with a few diced kalamatas, but I would agree with Emily that bread would be excellent with this, to scoop up the sauce.

-Thea

[emily]

Funny, Thea, I changed my menu around to have this last night as well! I kept the roasting temperature at 500 because my slices were pretty thick and while I was skeptical, it worked perfectly!

Kuvy - I did not peel the eggplant. I used fresh oregano because that's the only herb I can get to grow ;) But as Thea said the recipe calls for dried so I'm sure that'd be fine. I think this would be awesome with polenta!

Oh, I also topped mine with chopped fresh flat leaf parsley instead of basil because my store didn't have any fresh basil :confused:

Is it lunch time yet??? :p

Emily

[kristalsnow7]

I always make this dish in the summertime, when I have an abundance of eggplant from my CSA share. It is fresh-tasting and delicious, and my eggplant-hating boyfriend even likes it!


Kristal

[karen w]

As I mentioned over on the "what's cooking this week thread" I made this last summer with our homegrown Japanese eggplant. I also leave the skin on the eggplant, but I grilled mine instead of baking in the oven. It's a wonderful dish! I can't wait to make it again this summer. This summer we are going to try growing some Italian eggplants as well as the Japanese variety!

Karen

[yorkshirepud]

Just reviving this thread to ask a question.

How important is the mint to this recipe? I don't mind buying it, but I'd be halving the recipe and therefore would only need 1 1/2 T. Hence, I'd be left with a huge bunch of mint (mmm ... mint ice-cream perhaps ... sorry ... thought just came to me) Could I perhaps use extra basil? Or another herb? I have sage, rosemary, greek oregano, thyme along with basil in my garden. Oh, and chives!

Also, besides bread, did you serve it with anything? Or is it too filling? I'm taking the ideas of others and thinking perhaps a creamy polenta dish?

[d_ferrero]

I don't have an answer for you Adele, but thanks for bumping it up. I now know how I'm going to use up some leftover goat cheese and mint, as well as the eggplant I bought at the farmer's market on Saturday. :)

[kristalsnow7]

Adele,

Of the herbs you mentioned, I would definitely substitute basil for the mint in the recipe. I personally really love the taste of the mint in the sauce, but it does seem silly to buy a whole bunch of it when you only need a tiny bit.

And, I think you could just serve this dish with a side salad and some crusty bread. Makes a nice, light, refreshing summer meal.

Let us know how it works out for you!

[yorkshirepud]

NP d_ferrero, don't suppose you want to mail me 1 1/2 tablespoons of that leftover mint do ya? :D :p


kristalnow, I think I'll go the bread and salad route. I've been wanting to make some nice country bread for a while so this gives me an excuse. I may buy the mint and just use the rest and make tabbouleh or something.

[karen w]

Adele,
You could probably leave the mint out or use dried since it is such a small amount. BUT(you knew there had to be one!) I really think the mint is what added the "spark" to this dish. It made it a little more unique than your traditional tomato-basil pasta sauce. I also loved the combination of the mint, goat cheese, and eggplant. Those three ingredients gave the dish a nice creamy, refreshing taste. I served it over pasta, but salad and bread(or polenta) would also be good choices. Let us know how it turns out!

Enjoy!
Karen

[yorkshirepud]

karen, I think I'll just buy the mint then so I can really appreciate the dish. I'll find someway of using up the leftovers I'm sure.

Thanks. It's not on the menu until next week as I've shopped for the week, but I'm looking forward to it.

[d_ferrero]

Thanks to Emily for posting this one and to Adele for dredging it up! I made this last night (and had time to empty the dishwasher and wipe down the counters during the bake time) and really enjoyed it. Leftovers for lunch today were just as good.

[Robyncz]

WOW!!

This is a GREAT recipe. I've been working my way through a couple weeks' worth of CSA eggplant, and this is the best dish I've made so far. I can't wait for the left overs tomorrow.

By the way, I made the recipe exactly as written, except I didn't have quite a half cup of goat cheese. I think this would be even better with another 1/4 cup of goat cheese crumbles layered with the eggplant slices.

Thanks for posting!

[Kayaksoup]

This was suggested to me the other night to use my baby eggplant in. I made a half batch (all the eggplant I had) and served it over some WW Fettucine with a side of Pine mushrooms and white Chantrelles. Excellent! Thank you emily.:)

[DmOrtega]

Great recipe. Very fresh tasting and easy to put together. Thanks for sharing.

[tbear1923]

rewiew:
http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=63767