Recipe - Gratin Of Eggplant With An Orange Tomato Sauce (Vegetarian)

1/3 cup Olive oil; *see note
2 md Chopped onions; or less to
taste
One half Garlic clove; minced
1 small Carrot; chopped
1 Celery rib; chopped
1 One half pound Tomatoes; seeded and chopped
OR 28oz canned tomatoes,
drained
The zest of one medium
orange; julienned
Salt and pepper
One fourth cup Chopped or slivered fresh
basil
1 One half pound Eggplant
2 tablespoon Grated Parmigiano cheese; or
more to taste

Warm 2 tablespoons of the oil in a saute over medium heat. Stir in the
onions, garlic, carrot, and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until
the vegetables are soft but no browned, about 20 mins. Add the tomatoes and
orange zest, turn the heat up to mediumhigh, and cook, stirring, until the
tomato juice has nearly evaporated and the sauce is thick and jammy, about
15 minutes. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning, adding a little salt
and a lot of freshly ground pepper.

Off the heat, stir in the basil and set the sauce aside. The sauce can be
prepared well ahead of time and refrigerated until you're ready to continue
cooking. Add about One fourth cup water to the sauce to keep it from scorching and
reheat before continuing with the recipe.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice the eggplant no more than One half inch
thick. Use some of the remaining oil to oil a baking sheet lightly. Lay the
eggplant slices on the sheet and, using a paintbrush or pastry brush, paint
each slice with a thin coating of oil. Roast the eggplant slices for about
20 minutes or until they are brown on top and creamy inside. Remove the
baking sheet from the oven.

Preheat the broiler.

*Top each eggplant slice with a heaped tablespoon of the orange tomato
sauce, then sprinkle with a little grated cheese. Return to the oven and
broil for 5 to 7 minutes or just long enough to melt the cheese bubble the
sauce.

*For a more handsome presentation, lightly oil an oval gratin dish and
spread a very thin layer of orange tomato sauce over the bottom. Set the
eggplant slices on the sauce, top with more sauce and cheese, and broil.
Serve directly from the gratin dish. Makes 6 servings.

PER PORTION: 219 cals, 16 g fat (66% of the cals); 18g carb.

Recipe from A MEDITERRANEAN DIET COOKBOOK, by Nancy Harmon Jenkins (Bantam
Books, 1994) Edited by Pat Hanneman 98Mar

VARIATION: dice 1 ounce of slab bacon, about 1/3 cup. Start by gently
cooking the bacon in the sauce pan with only 1 tbs of the oil until the
bacon fat starts to run and the edges of the bacon begin to brown, about 5
to 7 minutes. Stir in the onions and complete the above recipe.

Recipe by: MEDITERRANEAN DIET, by Nancy Harmon Jenkins

Posted to MCRecipe Digest by KitPATh phannema@wizard.ucr.edu on Mar 23,
1998