This simple and rustic aubergine side dish is light and full of flavour. It can also be enjoyed in less traditional way, spread on bruschetta, toasted bread, as a topping on a pizza, and it can be mixed with rice, or used as a base for a pasta sauce.

Sautéed aubergines in garlic and parsley infused oil is an unpretentious dish, very easy to make and typically prepared in the households along the Slovenian coast, where my nona lives. She told me that her family had a lovely vegetable garden where aubergines grew during the summer months and early autumn. The best ones were picked and sold on the market, just across the Italian border, in Trieste, where they fetched good money. Only the wonky and imperfect ones, but most certainly not less tasty, were left behind for domestic use. They were cooked in delicious home-made extra virgin olive oil flavoured with garlic and fresh parsley and accompanied by potatoes or polenta.

This is not the dish that you would normally find in restaurants, with the glimpse of sadness in my nona's eyes, and a slight sense of embarrassment, she explained to me that this dish is “too simple” and is part of what “the modern world” defines as “the food of the poor” (more widely known as the Italian concept of Cucina Povera). However, it is slightly intriguing, since without her realizing it, this is precisely one of the kinds of dishes that are becoming increasingly popular and appreciated by many people.

What is interesting about this dish is that visually cooked aubergines resemble more closely mushrooms than aubergines. This is why Italians call a very similar and typical aubergine side dish from the Campania region in southern Italy, Melanzane a Funghetto (Mushroom-style aubergines ).

I am sharing here my nona's recipe for this delicious and humble sautéed aubergines with garlic and fresh parsley.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 kg aubergines
5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 clove of garlic, peeled
handful of fresh flat leaf parsley (about 13g) plus some extra for garnishing, finely chopped
sea salt
black pepper, optional

Method

Wash the aubergines and dry them, remove the stem.

Cut each aubergine into quarters lengthwise and check for the amount of seeds. If there is a considerable amount of seeds, eliminate and remove the central part containing the higher concentration of the seeds.

Cut the rest of the aubergine into a fairly small and thin regular-sized chunks.

Transfer the aubergine pieces into a colander, sprinkle with a bit of sea salt and place it over a bowl or into the sink so the bitter juices can drain away (avoiding the aubergines to taste bitter) during a sweating process (about 30 minutes). This phase will help to loose the liquid avoiding the aubergines tasting bitter. Squeeze very gently.

Pour the oil in a fairly large frying pan and sauté a whole garlic until golden in colour .

Stir in chopped parsley and add aubergine pieces.

Mix well so all the aubergine chunks are coated in oil and parsley.

Simmer in an open pan, on a fairly gentle heat, for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking at the bottom of the pan and burn, or until they release most of their liquid and the skin starts to have the same kind of texture as mushrooms. The aubergine pieces should be nice and soft but not mushy.

Taste and adjust the seasoning with sea salt and black pepper.

Fish out and remove garlic clove, discard.

Sprinkle with a bit of roughly chopped fresh parsley.

Serve hot, warm or at a room temperature.

Just a thought

Aubergines cooked this way are mainly served as a side dish but they can also be enjoyed in less traditional way, spread on bruschetta, toasted bread, canapes, as a topping on a pizza, and they can be mixed with rice, or used as a base for a pasta sauce.

Wine suggestion

Collio Friulano DOC 2021 - Ronchi di Cialla

This quintessentially summer dish gets devoured and seems to be a real hit every single time, it is a very “practical” dish, as it usually prepared in advance, and takes central stage on the tables of the locals back home on the Slovenian coast, where during the summer months the heat can be terrible but it is also during this time of the year that the ingredients for this dish are most abundant and taste their best.

Peperonata is cooked by the locals during the fresh, cooler, hours of the day, usually early in the morning or in the evening when it cools down a bit (there is a different rhythm of life, a different way of doing things, when you live in a climate that can regularly be very hot).

Moreover, better cooking follows this different, summer, rhythm of daily activities, since the following day the dish tastes even better as all the ingredients have a chance to mingle together!

Peperonata is so delicious you can just eat it on its own with some fresh crunchy or toasted bread, it is great paired with grilled meats and fish, cheeses, cold meats, cooked rice, makes a great base for a risotto or a pasta dish and incredibly tasty spread on bruschetta.

I am sharing here my mother's recipe for Istrian style peperonata, which is different from the Venetian variety where a little white wine is added to the dish.

When I cook this dish, I get immediately transported back home, to the sound of cicadas, to the fragrance of salty air, and to the childhood memories of long summers that never seemed to end...