Eggplant in Purgatory
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Serves 2-3 people
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
- 450g/16ozs. Japanese eggplant (slender eggplant)
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 red onion, peeled and sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
- 2 tablespoon capers, rinsed
- 2-3 large chillies (depending on how hot you want it)
- 50g/1.7ozs. pitted olives
- 700ml/24.7ozs. tomato passata (or chopped tinned tomatoes)
- 2 tablespoons sun dried tomato pesto
- 3 eggs
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F and line a baking tray with parchment. Trim the tops from the eggplant and slice in half lengthways. Brush with oil and bake for 15 minutes. Slice into inch long pieces. Honestly I think you could even skip this step and put the inch long raw eggplant pieces into the tomato too.
Step 2 - Add 2 tablespoons of oil to a pot on medium heat and add the onion, garlic cloves and capers and fry until translucent. Add the chillies, olives, passata and pesto and then the eggplant pieces and simmer for 25 minutes or so without the lid. The eggplant will absorb some of the water from the passata. Taste for seasoning now and add salt or pepper if necessary (or if the tomatoes are sour, add a little sugar).
Step 3 - Crack three eggs in the pot and cover with a lid and cook for a few minutes until the whites are cooked through. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve with crusty bread or flatbread.