Roasted Eggplants & Hunting Through Bookmarks

I bought two beautiful plump eggplants a week or so ago. (This photo from an earlier purchase but too cute to pass up here.) I had a particular recipe in mind and bookmarked it.    Then "Life" took over and the eggplants started to ... age... not so plump and firm, but still usable.


Truth be told... I couldn't remember which recipe I bookmarked... not even a general idea... was it on a blog?  a magazine site?... was it complex? ... simple?... was it spicy?...sweet?  What culture inspired it?.  I had no idea, So I did what many of us do, I started going through my bookmarks.  It got tiresome very quickly, so I just gave up and did a search, which landed me on a recipe for a delicious spread/dip on Canadian Living Magazine that I added to my "recipe box" on their site.  I now have recipe boxes on more sites than I remember, bookmarks on IE and Chrome... if only there was a way to consolidate.  I'm sure there's an app somewhere...sigh.    Now I'm addicted to Pinterest... a great clipboard where I can "pin" from anywhere, organize by my peculiarities.  The coolest part is that I don't have to remember where I initially found a recipe or a place I want to revisit.  I had thought of many options, like Grilled Eggplant Rollups with Feta, Mint & Chili or Roasted Eggplant with Preserved Lemon.  But my Honey is not a big eggplant fan so I have to hide it in dishes.

Oh... and the recipe I tweaked from Canadian Living...delicious

Roasted Eggplant & Garlic with Olive Tapenade

The thing about eggplant is that it's very prettiest raw...A stunning purple on the outside and pale flesh with tiny freckles from the seeds.   Once it's cooked is just sort of looks ... well... drab.  Add some black olives to the mix and it becomes an even less pretty brown mush.   But don't let looks fool you... this is one very tasty spread or dip.  

I really have been dreaming... or obsessing....about roasting the eggplant and combining it with other tasty ingredients in a lasagna using the multigrain noodles in my pantry so that I could be ready for Passover - no flour except for matzo and matzo meal.   I tried for last week's Presto Pasta Night but only just got around to making it yesterday.  Roasted Eggplant, Mushroom & Spinach Lasagna... which will be my entry to this week's Presto Pasta Night.  I'm hosting and if you want to join in the fun, just write about it, mention Presto Pasta Night and email your URL to me -  ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com by Thursday.... but I digress.  


The coolest thing about lasagna is NOT the cleaning up - pot for noodles, possibly pot for sauce, bowls to mix various fillings....the coolest part is being able to be creative - no need for any recipe really, just inspiration points.    So what's your favorite thing to put in a lasagna?