Eggplant Tartine

Using up all food from the CSA within a week can be difficult. Where others might falter, I try and take it in stride. In the winter, the easy answer was always soups.  Now that summer heat is upon us, I have been trying my luck with other methods to use up my foods. This week I was getting desperate, I had a record number of things to use (some dying, others were ok...for now). It was getting bad. I swear I could hear them screaming in my dreams, I would wake up in a cold sweat desperately thinking of ways to put them out of their misery. The dying group included 1 eggplant, a green bell pepper, and three heirloom tomatoes.

Please....kill us.....

I also had some fresh garlic from a couple weeks ago that wasn't looking so...fresh. I also had some shitake mushrooms and some sage on hand. I decided to make the following (which I'm going to call Eggplant Tartine, cuz "open faced eggplant sandwich" sounds unfortunate):

Eggplant Tartine:

• 1 med eggplant, sliced med-thick
• 1 green bell pepper, cut into strips
• 3 med/large tomatoes, diced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1c shitake mushrooms, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 3 sage leaves, finely chopped
• 1/4c white wine
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c. milk
• ~2c. panko bread crumbs
• olive oil
• salt/pepper
• Romano cheese (or Parmesan)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together the milk and egg. Dip each eggplant slice and then cover in breadcrumbs. Place on a greased baking sheet (or use a silipad). Sprinkle with some kosher salt.
2. Toss the bell pepper with some olive oil to coat arrange on a second baking sheet. We want them to roast, so don't pile them up, keep them spread out. Sprinkle with some kosher salt.
3. Heat up a large skillet or dutch oven on med and add a few Tbl. of olive oil and onions. Cook until translucent and starting to brown (~6.4 min), then add mushrooms and garlic. Keep stirring for a few minutes, add a pinch of salt.  Unless you are using a non-stick pan, you should start to have brown bits sticking to the pan (after ~3-4 min). De-glaze the pan with the wine, then add the tomatoes, bay leaf, oregano, sage, and salt and pepper. Cover and turn down the heat to low, cook for about thirty minutes (while you cook the veggies) and stir occasionally.
4. Put the eggplant pan and the bell pepper plan in the oven. Cook for 30 minutes, flipping every thing over half way through.
5. When the eggplant/pepper are done, check the sauce.  If it is pretty wet, take the lid off and let some of the liquid evaporate. Its ok to have a little liquid, but you don't want a soup.
6. Put 4-5 eggplant pieces on a dish, top with some strips of roasted bell pepper, then a heaping of the tomato sauce. Grate some cheese on top, then enjoy!

I was suprised at how good this tasted, even ignoring the fact that I was winging it. I'm usually not a big fan of eggplant, but it was nicely balance by the tomato sauce. The sage complemented it really well, I added it hoping to just get rid of it but it took it up another level. It might have been even better if I had put some cheese on the eggplant as well, but I guess that goes without saying (you could put cheese on a truck tire and call that an improvement too). I plan on archiving this one for future use!

The decayed food ganged up on the poor shitakes

eggplant is breaded and ready for the oven!

Sauted onion, mushroom, and garlic, just before the de-glazing.  You can see the fond!

All toasted up!

Roasted bell pepper strips

The tomato sauce, there still a little juice left!

All stacked up

The finished product!

Music: