Roasted Tomato and Eggplant on Toast with Homemade Aioli and Arugula + Bloody Ceasars

This was another one of my toaster oven creations from the two weeks when we didn't have gas in our apartment.

First, I cut up the eggplant into about 1 inch cubes and tossed them with salt, pepper and olive oil before roasting them at about 425 dergees. Next, I sliced a few roma tomatoes in half, again, tossed them with salt, pepper and olive oil, plus a few sprigs of thyme and roasted them at about 425 as well. For the aioli, I crushed up some garlic and then in a separate bowl, combined an egg yolk, sherry vinegar, dijon mustard and salt before slowly streaming in a combination of vegetable and olive oil. I then toasted a few slices of bread, spread on a little aioli, next lay on a roasted tomato and a few pieces of eggplant and then topped it with a handful of arugula and a little of my fancy balsamic vinegar that Lucas bought for me.

Now, for drinks we had a couple of Bloody Ceasars. Apparently it's a SUPER Canadian drink that doesn't really exist in the US, but think of it as basically the same thing as a Bloody Mary but with Clamato juice instead of tomato juice. Clamoto juice is tomato juice mixed with clam juice. Sounds really gross, I know, but it's just soooo delicious, you have to trust me!!! Instead of using store-bought Clamato juice, I opted to buy separate bottles of tomato and clam juice to make my own. This way, it's easy to control how clammy it gets... So anyways, the other ingredients are lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, tabasco (not pictured), horseradish, tons of pepper, vodka and celery salt around the rim of the glass. I don't have a recipe, so it helps to just put in a little of everything at a time and keep tasting until it's just right. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Amsterdam: Pasta alla Norma + Radish and Arugula Salad

(Recipe for two)

Lucas and I spent the morning at Amsterdam's Noordermarkt in Jordaan. I got there with a craving for pasta but I still wasn't entirely sure what kind of sauce to make. When I saw some eggplant at one of the stalls, the answer became obvious. I looooove eggplant and I looooove pasta alla norma. This dish is almost as simple as making tomato sauce, but it includes one extra step - either frying or roasting some eggplant. I usually roast the eggplant, but since we don't have an oven in our apartment here in Amsterdam, I fried up a small-medium sized eggplant (diced) in a little bit of olive oil instead. When the eggplant had softened after about 10-15 minutes, I remove it from the pan. Next, in the same pan, I added in a little more olive oil and 3-4 chopped up garlic cloves along with some chili (as much as you'd like, it really depends on how spicy the chili is to begin with because they can be veeerrry unpredictable).

Before the garlic turns brown, add in either a can of tomatoes or about 8 medium sized diced fresh tomatoes (you can remove the skins if you want by blanching them for about a minute. After blanching, the skins should peel off easily). I used fresh tomatoes but I did not remove the skins because I was lazy and I was not trying to impress anyone. We were drinking some red wine so I poured in about a glass full and let that boil off. I also had a little bit of thyme in the fridge so I threw in a sprig or two. Make sure to season with salt along the way. I let the sauce simmer for about 30-40 minutes and adjusted the acidity with some sugar when it was needed (depends on the tomatoes). When the sauce had reduced to a much thicker consistency, I added in the cooked eggplant and simmered the sauce for another 5-10 minutes. At this point, I removed the thyme stems and added in some fresh basil. I cooked the pasta until al dente and then mixed it in with the sauce.

For the salad - I haven't bought any vinegar here so I've been making salad dressings with lemon and olive oil. This time, I added in a little honey too. I sliced up a few radishes and tossed the salad together with a few handfuls of arugula at the last minute.

Eggplant Caponata on Toast with Feta

This was definitely one of my favorite things that I've made in a while. Before I made the caponata, I knew that I wanted some sort of salty cheese on it, I was thinking ricotta salata but ended up with a really nice feta instead. I started off by salting the eggplant and letting it drain in a colander, something I don't always do, and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure if it's even worth bothering. Next, I diced up an onion and sautéed it in some olive oil with a bit of chili flake for about 4-5 minutes, I then added in about 4 stalks of diced celery and half of a red pepper. After another 4 minutes or so, I removed the vegetables from the pan.

Into the now empty pan, I poured in some more olive oil and began frying off the eggplant. It started to stick to the pan a little bit and I didn't want anything to burn, so I poured in about 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar and a bit of water and let it all cook together partially covered. When the eggplant was done, I put in about a teaspoon each of anchovy paste and tomato paste. Next, I added in the sautéed vegetables, about a cup of diced tomatoes (canned tomatoes would work fine too), some chopped up capers and green olives, a sprinkling of sugar and some sherry vinegar (it's much more sour than balsamic which is actually super sweet most of the time). The balance of sweet and sour is up to you! It's good to let all the ingredients sit together on a very low simmer for a little while. Before I was ready to serve, I toasted up some bread with a tiny drizzle of olive oil on each slice. When the bread was ready, I pulled it out of the oven and rubbed on a little raw garlic, topped each slice with some caponata and some crumbled feta.

Finally, while I was reaching into the fridge for a bit of parsley, I was sidetracked by the lovely fennel fronds that were poking out of the plastic bag that the fennel was in. I went for them instead of the parsley and they ended up adding a beautifully delicate green fennel flavor that complimented the eggplant and feta perfectly!

Perhaps this was not an entirely traditional rendition of caponata, but it sure did taste good!

Tomato, Eggplant, Basil and Mozarella Panzanella + Plum Crisp

I thought that it would be appropriate to eat panzanella and a plum crisp in honor of the beginning of spring/summer! For the panzanella, I let a loaf of sour dough bread get a little stale for the past few days and then cut it into cubes and toasted it in the oven with a mixture of olive oil, butter, garlic, chili flake, salt and pepper. I cubed up the eggplant and let that drain a little bit in a colander with some salt. After about 30-40 minutes of draining, I roasted the eggplant at about 400 degrees. I chopped up a few tomatoes and added those in with the bread. When the eggplant was done roasting, I threw that in with the bread and tomatoes, along with some chopped up mozarella and some torn up basil. I drizzled in a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar and tossed everything together. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture when it was actually ready to eat (must have been very hungry) and only have the one from right after I put in the eggplant.

For the plum crisp, I simply mixed up half a stick of butter with about 1/2 cup each of oats, flour and brown sugar, and a bit of salt and cinnamon until it became crumbly. I sliced up the plums and mixed them with some maple syrup, lemon zest and about a tablespoon of lemon juice. I baked the crisp at 375 until the top was golden (about 40 minutes). This plum crisp was a perfect balance of sweet and sour!