Roasted and grilled eggplants are all well and good, but nothing beats the crisp skin and burnished flesh of eggplant that’s been fried.
Frying eggplant isn’t something I’ll do very often, and rarely on a weeknight. But every once in a while, when the urge to eat an entire platter of salty, soft-centered fried eggplant is too intense to ignore, I’ll fill my skillet with oil, and turn up the flame.
It’s a feeling that comes on especially strong as eggplant season wanes. With only a few weeks left, there’s an urgency to the indulgence — oil-splattered stovetop be darned.
The upside is that once you’ve gone to the trouble of frying, you don’t need to do much else; a sprinkling of salt and a squeeze of lemon are all those crunchy, golden pieces need to shine.
But just as often as not, I’ll take the richer route, and add a little cheese. Like in this recipe for fried eggplant with milky ricotta, red-pepper flakes and honey.
Dead simple and thoroughly appealing, it’s got crunch, it’s got creaminess and it’s got red-pepper heat. There’s also a touch of honey for sweet complexity, along with slivers of fried garlic for oomph. And you can put it together in under 30 minutes from start to finish, not counting the cleanup. (I use a vinegar-soaked rag.)
The key to speedy frying is tender, slim eggplants. Pick one up; it should feel light for its size. Violet Japanese eggplant and striped graffiti eggplant work particularly well if you can find them. Just avoid those large, dense, heavy purple globes, which take a lot longer to cook through.
Then cut the eggplant up into skinny spears, and salt them while you heat up your pan. The salt both seasons them and draws out a bit of their moisture, so make sure to pat them dry before adding to the hot oil.
After the eggplant is fried, it’s the garlic’s turn. Throw some slices into the hot pan, and let sizzle until golden. That’s it for the cooking. All that’s left is a garnish of milky ricotta, a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of red-pepper flakes and basil. Serve it with a big green salad and some good bread or polenta for a vegetable-focused meal, or as a side dish alongside meat or seafood for something more substantial.
Your kitchen will be greasy; your apron may be stained. But if you love eggplant, it’s but a small price to pay for the glories of the feast.
