It’s been a busy week over here at IBIH and I haven’t had a chance to post in a few days! I cooked up a storm this morning though, and I’m looking forward to sharing those recipes with you this week.
Saturday morning we went to the Ladson open air market, my favorite place to stock up on produce and get inspired. I love it because it’s always cheap and you never know what you’re going to find.
This trip I came home with the usual huge stock of beautiful (did I mention cheap?????) produce, as well as some nice cherrystone clams and jumbo fresh shrimp. We had clams casino and curried shrimp this weekend and they were delicious. Sadly, I never got a chance to take photos (I know, so selfish!!!), so I’ll have to wait until next time to share them with you!
One thing I did find that I am excited to share are these beautiful baby eggplant. I bought a ton of them because they were so pretty! I wasn’t even sure how I would use them, I just knew I had to have them!
This morning I roasted some and I’ll be making the rest of them the same way, because they are just soooo delicious! My husband isn’t usually a fan but I think even he might like these – a theory I’ll test out tonight.
If you can’t find baby eggplant (I’ll be attempting growing some of my own this year) I suspect you could slice a mature eggplant and roast the slices. Then you could top it with the ricotta and drizzle it with olive oil just like I did with these. In fact you could probably do it in strips and roll them up for an appetizer. Note to self: do that soon.
When I made these I dipped into my stash of Wild Fennel Pollen which is expensive and has a delicate anise flavor. I was conflicted about it because I realize not everyone reading this has it or can find it. I got it at a specialty market awhile ago and have never seen it in a grocery store. For that reason, I almost didn’t use it.
But I don’t want to dumb my recipes down and assume that you all can’t, or don’t want to go the extra mile to obtain and try out a new ingredient. For me that’s half the fun and I suspect most of you are the same. So if you can find it, I highly recommend using it! But if you omit it, these will still taste incredible – they just won’t have the subtle anise flavor that mine did.
Roasted Baby Eggplant
- Yield: 16 halves 1x
Ingredients
- 8 baby eggplant
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp Wild Fennel Pollen (optional)
- 1 tsp kosher or sea salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
- to serve:
- 1/3 cup ricotta cheese
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Freshly ground pepper
- Kosher or sea salt to taste
Instructions
- Wash the eggplant and cut them into halves. Place on a cookie sheet cut side up. Drizzle with the olive oil and then sprinkle with the fennel pollen (if using), salt and pepper.
- Bake in a 350 degree (F) oven for about 45 minutes, or until softened and lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.
- Right before serving top with about a teaspoon of ricotta cheese per half. Sprinkle with freshly cracked peppercorns (pink or mixed if you have them) and just a few grains of salt. Drizzle with a good quality extra virgin olive oil.
- Based on my experiments, the best way to eat them is similar to an artichoke leaf. Just sink your teeth in and pull, scraping off all of the delicious filling, and leaving the tough skin behind.
- Category: Side dish
- Cuisine: Vegetable
Nutrition
- Serving Size: half an eggplant
- Calories: 44
- Fat: 4g
- Carbohydrates: 1g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 1g
I also tried eating them with the skin, which wasn’t totally unpleasant, but I preferred them without it. The roasted eggplant is beautifully sweet, and the cool, creamy ricotta creates a nice contrast. These would make a perfect accompaniment to pretty much any roast meat, but are also deliciously satisfying on their own as a vegetarian option. Can’t wait to hear what you think of them! I’ll be eating the rest of mine for lunch today – Yum!
Carla says
I also bought “baby” eggplants not knowing what I would do with them, because they are so *pretty* and I just had to try them. I found this recipe after I got them home, and tried it today. I read all the developer notes about Wild Fennel Pollen. – I don’t have this ingredient and have no idea where to get it, and didn’t want to wait for an on-line order to be shipped before using my baby eggplants. I **did** have ground fennel seed, so I sprinkled a couple of pinches of ground fennel over the oiled, cut sides of the baby eggplants (I had four baby eggplants. That turned out to be the perfect amount to serve as a side dish for two people – my husband and me.) The ground fennel imparted a mild anise flavor, as Mellissa G. described for the Wild Fennel Pollen. I did not happen to have yogurt on hand, but I had some homemade ranch dressing made with sour cream and buttermilk, so I used a drizzle of this dressing to finish the eggplants. To eat them, I scooped the flesh out of the skins with a spoon. (I tasted the skins – they actually weren’t bad. I will definitely be making his recipe again, the next time I encounter these pretty little eggplants!
Josh Tousey says
I just made this for the family, as a main course. I followed a different roasting technique.I added a whole garlic halved in center of pan and i covered with parchment for first 30mins. Removed parchment and cooked additional 10mins. We used cottage cheese drizzled with some “First Cold Pressed” Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, fresh ground salt and pepper. Big Hit!!
Sharon Rogers says
Simple and absolutely delicious! I ground fennel seed and mixed it with the olive oil, then brushed it on the eggplant halves. That gave it a slight anise flavor, which is a really nice touch.
Ed says
Had high hopes for this recipe but got disappointing results. The flesh was stringy and did not release well from the skin when I tried to scrape it with my teeth. In all the earlier comments, only one person seems to have tried the recipe. That one person was happy with the results – where did I go wrong? D
tara says
Ed, everyone’s oven cooks a bit hotter or cooler than others, My oven burns these at high temps of 375 to 400 so at 350 I would test it and cook it longer. Or put it in at 400 for half the time and watch it and then turn down if it browns too quickly. Hope you can give it another try.
Charlotte Reed says
I just bought some today, they are so cute. I’ve never had this type of eggplant before. I looked it up once I arrived home to see how to cook them and I happened up on your site. I’m going to try them your way. Thanks for the tip.
Marie Louis says
Absolutely delicious….I should have roasted them all. This will be my Go To Receipe now!!!
Jasa says
Love this recipe–and your photography is wonderful. Just looking at it makes my mouth water.
Mellissa, you mentioned that Wild Fennel Pollen is difficult to find . . . here is a link to a WONDERFUL company that hand gathers wild fennel pollen and sells it on the web–and it’s not really expensive considering that a little goes a very long way.
Thanks for all your hard work.
Kree8 says
Thank you for the reciepe! Will definitely try this out and share.
Katie Gonzalez says
I wonder if roasting fennel stocks with the eggplant would impart a nice flavor? Never thought to collect fennel pollen (wonder how?) But I love to grow it…so I have fronds, stalks, seed heads, and bulbs on hand…what would you try?
Mellissa Sevigny says
Sounds delicious Katie! I bet it would be nice with the fronds if you chopped them up!
Sarah says
wondering if goat cheese could be used instead of cottage cheese for something different?
Mellissa Sevigny says
Sarah I used ricotta not cottage cheese, but yes, I bet goat cheese would taste fantastic!