How to Cook Eggplants in Olive Oil

This eggplants in olive oil recipe is typical for central Italy. Eggplants do not get thermal treatment but they are soaked in salt and vinegar. They usually take a special local sort of small round eggplants which grow ripe in late fall. Eggplants in olive oil have a piquant taste not unlike that of marinated dry mushrooms. They can be served as a side dish to meat or fish. Neapolitans like to eat these eggplants with fried homemade sausage. You can also add them to different salads to give them a special zest.

Ingredients for Eggplants in Olive Oil

• 2.2 lb eggplants
• 0.7 lb salt
• 1.3 pt 4-6% white grape vinegar
• olive oil enough to cover the eggplants completely
• 4 garlic cloves
• oregano to taste
• 1 tablespoon flavored olive oil

Cooking Instructions

1. Wash eggplants, cut into thin slices. Put the slices into a bowl and mix with salt.
2. Then put eggplants into a colander. Take a big bowl, put a small pan upside down into the bowl and put the colander with the eggplants onto the pan. Press down the eggplants with a plate, put something heavy on it like a one-liter jar filled with water.
3. Leave the eggplants like that for 10-12 hours. During this time almost all the eggplant juice will run out.
4. Take out the eggplants and squeeze the remaining juice with your hands.
5. Put the squeezed-out eggplants into a clean bowl and pour in vinegar so as to cover the eggplants completely. Leave them like this for 1.5-2 hours.
6. Put chopped garlic, a tablespoon of flavored olive oil, oregano into a glass jar and mix up with a spoon. If you have no flavored olive oil, use some red pepper.
7. Squeeze the vinegar from the eggplants well and put them into the jar. Mix them carefully with garlic, oregano and peppered olive oil. After that arrange them evenly and pour  in with olive oil so as to cover the eggplants.


Eggplants Poured with Olive Oil

8. Put the jars with eggplants into the fridge. You can eat them in a week.