Baked Eggplant, Mediterranean Style

This is a hearty dish, maybe more suited to a cold winter night than a hot summer one, and is full of savory Mediterranean flavors. It takes some time in the oven, but it's worth keeping it in there to get that velvety  texture. I relied on this recipe, but added capers and olives, which brought a briny acid to the earthy eggplant and tomato.

Also, some housekeeping. I won't be putting up separate posts anymore about the produce in each week's CSA shipment - it just didn't seem to make sense to keep doing it, especially since I'll continue writing after the season ends. I'm also going to start adding the total time to cook, because I find that's helpful when I'm looking at recipes.



Makes four servings
Total time to cook: 1 hour

Ingredients:
2 small eggplants, halved (or 1 large eggplant, cut into quarters)
14 oz can whole plum tomatoes, drained and chopped
1/8 cup coarsely chopped basil leaves
1/2 cup diced onions
1 tsp capers
2 tbsp chopped kalamata olives
1/3 cup olive oil
Pepper
Parmesean cheese, to grate on top

Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- In a small or medium glass pan, arrange the eggplant with the skin side down.
- Brush the tops with 2 tbsp of olive oil and season with a little pepper, set aside.

- In a pan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil.
- Saute the onions until they're translucent.
- Mix the onions in a separate bowl with the tomatoes, basil, capers and olives.
- Spoon tomato mixture evenly on top of the eggplant pieces.

- Pour the remaining olive oil into the bottom of the baking pan.
- Cover with tin foil and bake for 10 minutes.
- Uncover, spoon some of the juices on top of the eggplant pieces, re-cover and bake for another 15 minutes.
- Uncover, baste the pieces again, and bake (uncovered) for another 20 minutes.
- Top with a little parmesean cheese and serve immediately.