Originally published by The Clifton Courier, January 26, 2022

I started making this a few months ago*, when I was seduced by a particularly pungent pot of basil at my local grocer (PS: if you put on a fancy voice when you say “grocer” to yourself, you’ll understand why I now insist on saying “grocer” instead of “supermarket” – it’s a bit of fun and I think we could all do with a bit of mild, good-natured fun sprinkled throughout the day).

* A year and a few months ago, by now.

I brought it home and put it on my kitchen bench, where the sight of it filled me with joy, but also challenged me to actually… use it for something. 

A few years back I think I gave myself food poisoning with a homemade pesto recipe and I’m still unable to stomach the thought of pesto, so I opted for the tomato sauce route. 

And rather than dump it on pasta, one of my most culinary-minded mates suggested I bung it on eggplant instead. And when I did, I messaged her absolutely raaaaving about the addition of tomato sauce to baked eggplant and she rightly ridiculed me by pointing out “yeah it’s called parmigiana…”

Anyway, it’s since become a regular on my dinner table and in my containers to for work lunches (I bulk it out with a bit of microwave rice).

Here’s how I’ve been making it:

I slice one large eggplant in half lengthways and then slice those halves lengthways so they’re roughly divided up into long quarters (I mean, sure, I could have said “slice into eighths”, but I’m not like that).

I then drizzle olive oil onto a sheet of baking paper lining a baking tray, grind some salt and pepper into the oil and rub the eggplant eighths in it so they’re coated on all sides. 

I sit the pieces on the tray skin-side down and bake at 180 degrees for roughly 40 minutes. You want them to have a bit of blackening on the corners, but the flesh shouldn’t be too brown. 

The last time I made this, I’d dropped a few bits of bickies in the bottom of my oven a couple of days before and those dropped bits started to smoke up as the eggplant cooked. It was a fire hazard, but geez did it give the eggplant a good flavour. 

Anyway, while the eggplant is cooking, get cracking on the tomato sauce. 

I gently heat a bit of olive oil in a frypan, throwing in a medium diced onion, two minced cloves of garlic, a pinch of salt to stop the onion from burning and about a quarter of a teaspoon of dried chill flakes – this is going to be a sweet, mild sauce so you don’t want too much chilli here, but a little kick makes all the difference. 

Then, once the onion has softened, I’ll add one can of whole peeled tomatoes to the frypan – I’ve done it with diced tomatoes before, however, there’s something about whole tomato that seems to add more flavour, but that could just be all in my head. At this point, turn the dial up to a medium heat. I use the back of the spatula to smoosh the tomatoes so they break down into sludge. Then I half-fill the tin with some old red wine, swish it around to pick up all the leftover sauce and tip that in. I have been using this cask of merlot I bought for the very first lockdown, so don’t go rushing out to buy yourself fancy wine for this. I like to think the cheaper and older, the better… although I have no authority to make this claim. 

Let this all bubble up, then rip in about a handful of basil leaves and add a quarter of a teaspoon of caster sugar. 

When I’m feeling fancy, I’ll whiz the sauce up in a food processor to make it chunk free, but that’s an extra step and extra washing up you don’t necessarily need. 

When the eggplant is looking good and browned, I place the pieces skin-side down in a casserole dish, wedging them all in together. I top with the tomato sauce and then dot with a whole bunch of torn-up bocconcini balls and put it back in the oven for about 20 minutes. 

Once the sauce is bubbling and the cheese has browned, it’s done. 

Heap out and top with about a handful of fresh basil leaves on each plate. Try to control yourself and ration out the cheese so you get a little bit in each bite – as good as it is by itself, you don’t want your last bite to be cheese-less!