Celebrating eggplants ,

A good substitute for meat, the humble egg plant has become an undispensable part of Sicilian cooking, says David Tanis

It’s hard to imagine Sicilian cooking without eggplant. You find it in every market, in every restaurant and certainly in every home kitchen. Having recently visited Sicily, I remember each eggplant binge fondly — and there were many.

It is always fascinating to see how cuisines and cultures collide. Sicily has been fought over and ruled by many peoples during the last 2,500 years, starting with the ancient Greeks. Each conquering group introduced ingredients from its home turf, adding layers to an ever-evolving local cuisine: The Greeks planted grapes and olives, the Romans contributed wheat.

The Arab influence
But it wasn’t until the early Middle Ages, under Byzantine and Muslim rule, that eggplant became a part of the everyday Sicilian diet. Eggplant, originally cultivated in South Asia, had long been a staple of Arabic cookery; now it is popular throughout most of the Mediterranean.

Sicilian cuisine today is varied, with beloved regional recipes and all manner of extravagant food for feast days, as well as incredible fish and shellfish from the coastline. But a recurring theme in daily cooking is the use of a few inexpensive, common ingredients: olive oil, eggplant, tomato and pasta. These are down-home, primal flavours, emblematic of so-called cucina povera, in which simple and delicious meals are made on the cheap.

Eggplant often stands in for meat. Slices dipped in breadcrumbs and pan-fried in olive oil replace lamb chops, or are rolled with cheese to make involtini. Eggplant salads, eggplant pickles, eggplant-heavy pasta dishes, stewed eggplant, stuffed eggplant, grilled eggplant — you find all these and more in Sicily.

Three of the most famous eggplant dishes are pasta alla Norma, eggplant caponata and eggplant parmigiana. For each, there are countless variations, sometimes vastly different one from the other.

Pasta alla Norma is humble, traditional and justly famous. The 19th-century composer Vincenzo Bellini is said to have adored it with such a passion that the dish was eventually named after his opera Norma. You make a simple basil-infused tomato sauce, fry eggplant cubes in olive oil, toss both with pasta and shower with grated ricotta salata and toasted breadcrumbs. Or do you? Some fry large slices of eggplant and lay them over the pasta, or ring the platter with them instead.

Eggplant caponata is of Arabic origin, presumably, since it is stewed in oil, sweetened with sugar and spiked with vinegar. A kind of savoury preserve, it is often made in quantity and stored in jars for use throughout the year.

This one has capers and green olives, but other versions contain raisins and pine nuts; I know a cook who includes a pinch of saffron. Some cooks add a lot of tomatoes, but I prefer just a touch of tomato paste. The seasoning is sweet, sour and salty, like a good pickle. Wait to taste it a day or two after it is prepared, so the flavours can fully meld.

Eggplant parmigiana is often blanketed in tomato sauce, which makes this tomato-free version, which I learned from a Sicilian cook. She makes it by layering thinly sliced eggplant with tuma (a fresh curd cheese), caciocavallo, pecorino and parmesan. These dishes taste best with spanking-fresh eggplant. Seize the moment at the market.