Monday, June 2, 2014

Warm aubergine and tomato salad with feta

This might just be my new favorite light summer dinner. I got the idea when a friend had this dish in a museum cafe recently after we had been to an exhibition.
Added bonus: It's dead simple to make.


Ingredients for two:
Two or three sprigs of thyme
One midsized aubergine, roughly diced
One clove of garlic, finely chopped
Four plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
A small glass of white wine of stock
Ca. 50 gr. of feta, sliced
Fresh basil, to taste
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

1. Start by heating your olive oil in a deep frying pan. Add the thyme so you will know when it's hot enough. When the herbs start to sizzle you can add the eggplant with a large pinch of salt*. Fry the eggplant over medium to high heat and turn every couple of minutes until the vegetable is cooked through. This will take around ten minutes.
2. Add the garlic and turn up the heat. As soon as the garlic is fragrant (and before it burns) add your chopped tomatoes, give it a quick stir then add the wine and another pinch of salt*. Let it come to the boil, reduce the heat to medium and let it simmer with a lid for 5-10 minutes.
3. Check so see if you still need to let some liquid evaporate, check the seasoning of a final time. Then arrange it on a platter or in y bowl, top with the feta and basil (torn or roughly chopped at the last minute) and serve with some nice dark bread.

This dish is wonderful the next day. Reheat it in a microwave or eat cold, what ever you prefer.
*Seasoning a dish like this in stages will make it more subtle than just throwing in a lot of salt at the end. Just remember that you can always add more and err on the light side....