CSA Stew

I picked up a wonderful assortment of vegetables from my CSA, eggplant, zucchini, summer squash,  green beans, onions, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, chard, corn and peaches!

But, as I was going out-of-town, what to do with all the goodies?

Not to worry,  I put some olive oil in the bottom of a big pot and sautéed the onion and some garlic until the onion was soft.  Next, I cut up the eggplant and added it to the pot, sautéing it until it turned slightly golden.  Then I cut up 4 tomatoes, a zucchini, a summer squash, a pepper, corn from one of the ears of corn, and added it all to the pot.  I simmered the whole thing adding a little water as needed, and seasoning it with my favorite, turmeric and cayenne 

It was delicious!  I’m calling it CSA Stew

What to do with all that Eggplant!

I made a great dinner tonight.  Let me back up and say that I have gotten a lot of eggplant from my CSA share.

Short of eggplant parmigiana I really didn’t know any recipes for eggplant, and since I’m not eating dairy, parmigiana was out!

I saw this recipe for Pasta Alla Norma in one of my must-read newsletters,  No Meat Athlete.   The recipe is from epicurious.com   The original recipe was intended to be  served over pasta, but I didn’t feel like having pasta and I had a bunch of fresh tomatoes on hand so I modified the recipe slightly.   If you want to make this as a pasta sauce, use 2 14 oz. cans of diced tomatoes in juice instead of the 4-5 ripe tomatoes.

Here is what I did:

Alla Norma (without the pasta!)

Ingredients

• 1 medium eggplants, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 tablespoons coarse kosher salt
• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 4 ripe tomatoes, diced

Place eggplant cubes in colander and sprinkle with 1 tablespoons kosher salt. Let eggplant drain 15 minutes. Pat dry, removing excess salt.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat

Add onion and garlic; sauté until onion is soft, about 5 minutes

Add diced pepper and tomatoes

Cook until tomatoes begin to soften, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat

Heat 1-3 tablespoons olive oil in another heavy large skillet over high heat

Cook eggplant until browned on all sides, about 8 minutes

Using slotted spoon, transfer eggplant to tomato mixture in skillet

Mix it all up and enjoy!