Eggplant in Tomato Sauce

Eggplant is a plant native to India. Its cultivation is quite old, for over 2,000 years. It was introduced to Africa by the Arabs and later to Europe and America by the Spanish.

I learned to cook eggplant with my Mom. She made it so good! But as I learned to cook I altered the recipe a little and always look for ways to improve it.

Eggplant is considered to be a fruit and not a vegetable. It can be cooked in different ways, i.e. in sauce, in lasagna, as meatballs, with eggs, over rice, with cheese, etc.

This recipe for Eggplant in Sauce

Ingredients
1 eggplant
Salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons onions (chopped)
½ red pepper (chopped)
½ green pepper (chopped)
1 jalapeno pepper (chopped)
1 teaspoon small capers
2 tablespoons tomato paste
½ bunch parsley (chopped)
1 cube of Maggi chicken flavor bouillon
1-2 cups of water

Instructions

1. Peel the eggplant and cut into small pieces. Salt and scrub eggplant with the salt. Set aside for a few minutes. (This is done to get a little of the seed out and also to take some of the bitterness off.)
2. Rinse with clear water to remove the salt; Drain well. Set aside.
3. In a skillet, bring to a medium heat the olive oil. Add all the other ingredients except the water.
4. Add the eggplant. Sauté. Add 1 cup of water.
5. Reduce heat to low and simmer.
6. Add more water as needed.
7. Cook eggplant until completely minced, or if you prefer, you might leave some pieces whole, as seen in the photo.
8. Serve over white rice

• You can use this same recipe to make lasagna. Instead of ground beef place it between the lasagna noodles as if using ground beef.
• Also if you let the pieces cooked until minced, you can use it as dressing on Italian bread when making sandwiches instead of mayonnaise.

Yields 4 servings