Grilled Eggplant Antipasto

This is a very simple antipasto preparation which is common all over Italy. It has a strong taste and is quite rich so is not something that you would eat much of. It is best combined with other elements. Some good olives, fresh mozzarella and sliced ciabatta (a coarse textured bread) would be ideal. The quantity of serves cannot be precise as it depends on the amount of the other elements you choose to serve with it.

Serves 6-10

Ingredients

1 medium size eggplant
Salt
Olive oil
Ground black pepper
1 clove garlic finely chopped or/ a handful of chives chopped
a pinch of oregano
15-10 ml extra virgin olive oil
chilli - optional

Method

Peel the eggplant, slice into rounds, sprinkle with a little salt and leave for at least 20 minutes* in a colander to get out the water and bitterness.

Cover a baking tray with olive oil, take the eggplant slices and coat on each side with the oil. Put under grill at high heat and when the slices brown, turn over and brown the other side. Don't try and do too many at once.

Put into a dish with ground pepper, chopped garlic or chives and some oregano plus virgin olive oil.

You can add a tiny bit of chopped chilli too.

Eat a room temperature, piled onto sliced ciabatta bread or as part of a grouping of antipasti dishes.

* it used to be necessary to put eggplant under salt overnight. However Silvana notes that today, eggplant, like many other vegetables now in Australia, has a ‘weaker’ taste due to the way it is grown. So too the strong bitterness which necessitated long soaking, has been eliminated from the taste. So only a short period under salt is now required - this leaches some of the moisture from the eggplant.