Recipe #12 - Grilled Eggplant with Fresh Ricotta and Grilled Tomato-Basil Relish

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Round two for a vegetarian dish. It's kinda funny because I get excited about two different types of recipes: vegetarian dishes or straight up steak. Two completely different ends of the spectrum, I'm aware, but I love fresh veggies and bloody meat. Ha.

Now, there are three different parts to this recipe: the grilled tomato-basil relish, the fresh ricotta and the grilled eggplant.

For the grilled tomato-basil relish:

I heated the grill to high.

Since I like my onions marinated I did this step first. I chopped up the onions, put them into a medium sized bowl then added the oil, balsamic vinegar and fresh basil. Mix.

Then cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise. Threw them into a bowl with 2 tablespoons of the oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. I then placed them on the grill. The original recipe said to leave them on till they were charred on all sides, aprox 10 mins. I, however, could not get the suckers to char. They were becoming mushing, so I brought them inside, threw them on a cooking sheet and put them under the broiler until they charred. I them removed from pan and coarsely chopped them up. Then added to onion mixture.

Let sit at room temperature for 30 mins before serving. It can be made 4 hours in advance and refrigerated. But bring to room temperature before serving.

For the ricotta:

Stir together the ricotta and fresh parsley in a medium bowl and season with salt and pepper. Easy enough.

For the grilled eggplant:

Grill should be still heated if you've done step one and two consecutively. Now, I did something wrong here. I just straight up poured the oil and salt and pepper on the sliced eggplants, thinking I could mix them around in a bowl. Wrong. The eggplants are extreme absorbent and the places I poured the oil soaked right up. So, my recommendation is the following: In a small bowl mix oil, salt and pepper. Then brush each side of the eggplant until thinly coated.

I then placed the slices on the grill and grilled until golden-brown and slightly charred 7-8 minutes.

I placed the grilled eggplant in a large platter and topped each slice with a heaping tablespoon of the ricotta and a heaping tablespoon of the tomato relish. Bam. Done. And delish!

Time: 1 hour
Ratine: 7
Ingredients:
For the grilled tomato-basil relish:
8 ripe plum tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
5 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 small red onion, chopped
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil plus fresh leaves, for garnish

For the ricotta:
16 ounces fresh sheep's milk ricotta
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

For the eggplant:
2 medium eggplants. ends trimmed and cut crosswise into 1/2 inch think slices
6 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper