Eggplant With Uncooked Tomato Sauce and Pecorino Cheese

See, this is why you should have a vegetable garden, or at least grow a couple tomato plants, a couple eggplants and some basil in containers. We are fortunate to have a nice flat back yard that gets a lot of sun. This time of year here in Georgia so many herbs and vegetables are getting to their peak of flavor ready to be picked. Pulled three nice black beauty eggplants and three Cherokee purple tomatoes out of the garden this morning with the idea of using them to make eggplant parmigiana. I love eggplant but too many "eggplant parmesan" dishes are heavy, gloppy tomato-ey, cheesy messes. I wanted the eggplant to stand out and the tomatoes and cheese simply condiments for it. This dish is based on a recipe in the book - Franny's Simple Seasonal Italian (thanks again Brittany!). But I made a few changes, deciding to use an uncooked raw tomato sauce instead of cooked and Pecorino Romano cheese instead of mozzarella or parmesan.  

This really turned out great. The eggplant slices were nice and crisp and a little al dente. The simple raw tomato sauce was very aromatic with the individual ingredients keeping their identity.  You could clearly smell and taste the separate components - the sweet/tart Cherokee purple tomatoes, the lemony fresh basil, the pungent raw garlic, the background heat from the Calabrese pepper and the grassy olive oil. The salty pecorino cheese was perfect shaved on top. And on the side, savory grilled Italian sausage and sliced melon. Yah!       

Black Beauty Eggplants

Meaty Cherokee Purple tomatoes

Fresh Basil and a hot Calabrese pepper

For the uncooked tomato sauce:

Make sure to get the freshest ingredients possible. You won't be disappointed. Don't even try this with pale supermarket tomatoes. If you don't grow your own tomatoes and basil, wait until you can find some heirloom tomatoes and good basil at a farmers market. This will be your go-to pasta sauce for special occasions every summer. 

3 ripe home grown or heirloom tomatoes finely chopped. (Let their juices go into the sauce too.)

3 large garlic cloves finely chopped, not minced

1 nice handful of fresh basil hand torn into small pieces

1/2 cup of a good quality extra virgin olive oil

Optional - small hot chili pepper finely chopped

Pinch of salt and pepper

Combine the tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper (and hot pepper if using) in a bowl. Pour in the olive oil and then the basil. Make this several hours ahead of when you are going to use it. Cover with plastic wrap and let it stand at room temperature so the flavors can mingle and develop. Stir every now and then and taste. Do not refrigerate. 

Slice the eggplants lengthwise into 1/4 inch pieces

Sprinkle with salt and let sit in a colander for about half an hour. Then wash off and blot dry.

Dredge each piece in flour and shake off excess, then dip in beaten eggs.

And then into breadcrumbs.  I used Progresso but you could use panko or make your own. Don't over bread, though, it will just come off in the oil and burn.

Pan fry the eggplant on medium high heat until browned about 3 min per side. Use inexpensive supermarket store brand extra virgin for pan frying the eggplant here. It will still give a good olive flavor. Save your better olive oil for other purposes, like the tomato sauce above. 

Spoon out a thin later of the tomato sauce on each plate.

Divide up the eggplant slices and spoon a little of the sauce over each piece, shave some Pecorino Romano cheese over top and a few basil leaves. 

Serve up a link of grilled Italian sausage on the side and some sliced melon.