Ingredients

Serves 4-6 persons as a side dish

• 1 kg (2 lbs) eggplant

• 500g (1 lb) tomatoes (see Notes)

• 3-4 cloves of garlic

• A few basil leaves, torn into small pieces

• A few sprigs of fresh parsley, finely chopped

• Oil for frying

• Olive oil

• Salt

Directions

1. For this recipe—or, indeed, any other recipe that involves frying or sautéeing eggplant—it is best to purge the eggplants of their liquid, which can be bitter. Purging also helps the eggplant to absorb less oil. Here’s how you do it:

2. Cut the eggplants into good-sized chunks. Toss them into a colander as you go, sprinkling them generous with salt. When you’re all done. let them sit in the colander for a good 30 minutes or more.

3. Now set yourself up with lots of paper towels at the ready, and another colander or bowl. Take whole handfuls of the salted eggplant, lay it on a paper towel, then wrap up the eggplant chunks and gently squeeze to dry them as completely as possible. Drop the dried eggplant into the second colander. Repeat this procedure until you have used up all the eggplant.

4. The eggplant is now ready for frying or sautéing, depending on the recipe you’re making.

5. For this dish, you proceed to fry the eggplant chunks in abundant oil until they are just lightly brown around the edges. The eggplant should be tender, but not meltingly so. Lay the fried eggplant out on a baking sheet lined with paper towels to absorb any excess oil.

6. Now for the tomatoes, which you can make while you’re eggplants are purging: Cut the tomatoes into rough chunks, about the same size as the eggplant. Heat some olive oil in a skillet wide enough to hold them all in a single layer and toss in the garlic cloves. When the garlic is just beginning to give off its aroma (no more than a few moments) add the tomatoes and sauté them over a very brisk flame until they have cooked down. They will have melted into a kind of sauce, but with some chunkiness left in them. If you’ve made the tomato ahead of time, you can just let it rest off heat until you’re need it.

7. Now for the final step: Add the eggplant to the tomatoes in the skillet. Mix everything together very gingerly to avoid turning the eggplant (which should be quite tender) into mush. If you have the skill, the best way is to toss the ingredients around in the skillet. If you’re not up to that, then a spatula will do a more delicate job than a wooden spoon. Let the eggplant and tomatoes sauté over very brisk heat, tossing them from time to time, almost as if you were doing an Asian stir-fry, for a few minutes to let the flavors meld. Just before you’re done, add in the fresh basil and parley and finish the cooking.

8. Serve melanzane a funghetto hot or at room temperature.