Wednesday, March 15, 2017

THE ITALIAN VEGETARIAN

Judy stopped at our local Sprouts store the other day and discovered something she'd never seen before: baby eggplants.

Shoppers were scooping them up and she got a bagful and then asked a lady loading up on them how she fixed them.

The lady turned out to be Italian and she gave her a lengthy recipe which at one point involved cutting the eggplants in half and scoring them.

A man was listening in and at that point he said "Score them?  How do you do that?"

Apparently he had his mind on the NCAA basketball tournament but when eggplant scoring was explained to him realized his mistaken thought.

So . . .



. . . here, at home, are the halved eggplants, just a tad larger than a large egg, and some sliced zucchini.

And Judy shoots, she SCORES!




Go alongs include some garlic, a shallot, some cherry tomatoes and a sliced yellow pepper.

Throw all of that in a big pan and saute it with some olive oil and this is what you get.


Healthy and pretty darn good.

Judy called it sort of an Italian ratatouille minus the "gravy", as Italians call their red sauce.

(AMIT* - We had some chicken nuggets along with it so it wasn't a true vegetarian meal.)


<< *AMIT = A Moment Of Truth >>

17 comments:

  1. The whole concept of baby eggplants is just so darn cute! That was a timely score by Judy. I'm not one for trying new dishes, but it looks good enough to eat!

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  2. roasted vegetables are some of my favorite things, although I've yet to see baby eggplants.

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  3. If it has any meat it is gravy regardless of color.

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    1. Otherwise it is sauce, so I'm told by my half Italian wife

      I was interrupted by the dentist, why2 comments

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  4. For Eyetalian food, I highly recommend Carrabbas. And there's no clean-up! :)

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  5. We went to a Carrabbas in Scottsdale a couple of years ago. I concur. Wish there was one up here.

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  6. I'll pass this on to Kelly. She's really into the veggie thing at the moment. And I must admit, it looks delish! :)

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  7. Will share this with Lana and a couple of friends who are fans of eggplant. I am not in that club.

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  8. Every time I've been served eggplant, restaurant or residence, I figure I'm being slowly poisoned.

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  9. I used to be like you guys but I'm becoming converted.

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  10. I saw those at SPROUTS! Good Job Judy! If in doubt Google up a recipe! They really are adorable!

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  11. Those veggies do look very good, including the aubergines (egg plants) to which I became converted when I took up Indian cooking. There is, for me, one big advantage with miniature vegetables - particularly when cooked for two people - is that they do not hang around endlessly (like Christmas turkey!!). Certainly, further explorations into growing miniature veg is high on my 'must do' list when we eventually move house.

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  12. Looks pretty good.

    Steve

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  13. That looks fantastic. I'm always on the lookout for the perfect eggplant parmesan. I once had the best I've ever had at a tiny little restaurant in San Francisco when I was working there and I've never had it since. All the restaurants down here serve it so mushy, I can't eat it. I've even tried to cook it myself and I can't get the texture right either.

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  14. That looks really really good!

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