Better Home Cooking Basics: #39 Choose Eggplants that are Firm & have Fresh Green Stems.

Chris & I spent a glorious week in the NY Finger Lakes last week. On our sad (sad because the end of vacation is always sad) trek home we stopped at this uber farmers market to pick up some local produce for Chris' parents & ourselves. Eggplant was one of the veggies we scored. We got to talking about eggplants with our family & realized that besides that we like to eat them we didn't really know a lot about them. So I took to the innerwebs to find this super basic tip on how to pick the best eggplant at the stand: Choose firm, even hard eggplants. You don't want them to be mushy or have any soft spots.  Then look at the stem. If it's fresh & green looking you've found your plant - if not keep searching because those shriveled & dried leaves are not the ones to bring home to mom!

Now that you have your fresh eggplant try this or this recipe!

 Get more of my better home cooking basics here. 

Eggplant Rollatini

I love breaded eggplant. I love the crunchy exterior & the fleshy interior. It's almost meaty - but it's not because it's a vegetable. When I make eggplant rollatini (think egg plant parmesan but rolled up with yummy ricotta cheese inside) I like to keep the integrity of the crunch, otherwise what’s the point of going through all the motions to bread it in the first place? I ensure the crunch by first baking my eggplant with a mixture of panko (the crunchiest) breadcrumbs ahead of time & then when it’s time to put it all together I use just a little bit of sauce to top them with because the more sauce you add the more mushy (less crispy) it gets - but if that's your thing - sauce away!

This is a great & hearty vegetarian option when you’re going meatless. What are you eating for meatless dinners?

Grilled Eggplant Stacks with Lemon-Basil Ricotta

I found some adorable baby eggplants walking through a local farmers market with Chris this past weekend (as seen on my instagram feed).   I made these grilled eggplant stacks that give a tiny nod to eggplant parmesan but lighter for this end of summer version with my new found favorite chimichurri sauce.

Roasted Veggies & Goat Cheese Pizza

If you read this blog on the regular you might be noticing a pattern with pizza.  I'm really into making pizza dough to have on hand for dinner. The possibilities are endless & plus, who doesn't like pizza? 

Chris brought back one of the largest butternut squashes I've ever seen from the farmer's market so I felt the need to incorporate that into a dinner & in this case a pizza.  I'm not going to lie, you have to put some work in to get what you want out of a butternut squash. It's pretty hard so zap it in the microwaved before you attempt to cook it. Since mine was on the larger side I microwaved it for about 5 minutes. Then you can cut it in half length ways.  It has some seeds in it that you'll need to scoop out. There is also a pretty tough shell on this veggie so you'll need to peel that off.  Now you're ready to chop. Do your best to make even sized pieces. The smaller the pieces the quicker they will cook. I only used half of the squash for this recipe but I chopped up the rest of it & sealed it in a food storage bag for use later in the week - which mean less prep time for round two.

My favorite part of this pizza is smearing the warm goat cheese all over it when it comes out of the oven. The tang from the goat cheese & the sweetness of the roasted veggies is dinner worthy!