Rachel Roddy’s recipe for aubergine with tomatoesRachel Roddyon August 3, 2020 at 10:00 am

Aubergine soaks up flavours with vigour, and, when cooked al funghetto – fried in olive oil and tomato – releases them back into a heavenly sauce Even though, in these everything-always times, they never actually went away, it is not unreasonable to say that aubergines are back for the summer. Front row, heaped high, two euros a kilo: thank you very much.Melanzana nera, the black beauty: some round, others like big tears with elfin hats. Melanzana violetta lunga: as slim as a carrot, as long as a cucumber and inky purple-black. Melanzana tonda viola with its grapefruit proportions and the colour of amethyst. Melanzana zebrina viola: streaked white and violet, like the inside cover of a fancy book. What an enviably striking bunch; and members of the deadly nightshade family – no wonder some were distrustful when this exquisite vegetable, believed to have originated in India and been brought to Europe by the Arabs, was first cultivated in Sicily and Spain. For some, that distrust and diffidence persisted for centuries. Pianta volgare (“vulgar plant”) was how the naturalist Pietro Andrea Mattioli referred to aubergine in 1568, on observing its frequent use by the volgo, or common people, who ate it “fried in oil, with salt and pepper, like mushrooms”. Continue reading…

Aubergine soaks up flavours with vigour, and, when cooked al funghetto – fried in olive oil and tomato – releases them back into a heavenly sauce

Even though, in these everything-always times, they never actually went away, it is not unreasonable to say that aubergines are back for the summer. Front row, heaped high, two euros a kilo: thank you very much.

Melanzana nera, the black beauty: some round, others like big tears with elfin hats. Melanzana violetta lunga: as slim as a carrot, as long as a cucumber and inky purple-black. Melanzana tonda viola with its grapefruit proportions and the colour of amethyst. Melanzana zebrina viola: streaked white and violet, like the inside cover of a fancy book. What an enviably striking bunch; and members of the deadly nightshade family – no wonder some were distrustful when this exquisite vegetable, believed to have originated in India and been brought to Europe by the Arabs, was first cultivated in Sicily and Spain. For some, that distrust and diffidence persisted for centuries. Pianta volgare (“vulgar plant”) was how the naturalist Pietro Andrea Mattioli referred to aubergine in 1568, on observing its frequent use by the volgo, or common people, who ate it “fried in oil, with salt and pepper, like mushrooms”.

Continue reading…