Francis Lam's Let-My-Eggplant-Go-Free! Spaghetti

In the last week, I totaled my car*, almost gave myself a concussion by walking against a rather substantial tree branch and went all Lady Macbeth in my white silk nightgown this morning after slicing open my foot on a piece of glass in my kitchen (apparently, I must learn the hard way that you should never attempt to wipe down your counters before having your caffeinated morning beverage). Who knew a quarter-inch nick on a foot could bleed so much? I kind of wish I'd had the presence of mind to photograph the blood spatters on our white tile floor just now. They looked rather artful.

Let's not even talk about how I managed to bust my iPhone on Monday or about the fact that I thought I'd lost all my identifying documents earlier this week. Not even kidding. Is Mercury in retrograde or something? Am I supposed to be thinking of something I'm not? Or am I just on the rather klutzier side of humanity?

What I think is really going on is that the universe was balancing itself out in anticipation of my dinner last night. All this mayhem and in the midst of it, I had a stroke of very good fortune: discovering an eggplant sauce for my spaghetti that I loved so much I wanted to eat it with a spoon, out of the pan, with nary a taste for anyone else, spaghetti be damned. This is not to say that losing the car was worth the sauce, but it made the pain easier to bear. It really is something.

The sauce comes from the esteemed Mister Lam, rice whisperer and food writer extraordinaire (seriously, click over to his original recipe and feast on his words, would you?). Last year, when Gourmet folded and I, in a momentary sizzle of panic, printed out all the web-exclusive recipes from Gourmet.com, this recipe made it to the top of the stack, only to languish there as I packed up my life in New York and moved to Berlin. And truth be told, it would have languished there further if a certain visitor, sitting at my table last night and hungry for dinner, hadn't told me that it was one of her very favorite things to eat.

It is, in the grand tradition of humble Italian peasant food, a very ugly sauce. Gray, slippery and rather limp. You cook cubed eggplant and some garlic in olive oil, with the addition of some stock or water, until it goes all melty and soft and the fibers just sort of collapse underneath gentle pressure. It takes just 20 minutes, long enough to get started on setting the table, eating all the olives in your fridge or just having a drink to unwind from all the stress of your week, whether it involved car crashes and bleeding feet or not. Then, using a fork or a spoon or whatever you have around, you mash up the eggplant until it's, well, saucy. And to brighten up each spoon-, er, forkful, in goes some sliced basil and good dollop of minced sun-dried tomatoes. And salt. Don't forget the salt.

The noodles, chewy and slippery, curl around the pockets of sweet, savory eggplant, the basil snakes between each bite and a pop of tomato here and there makes the water run together in your mouth as you eat. You don't even need a grating of Parmigiano. You've got all you ever needed on your plate, right there.

Halfway through the cooking process, I realized that it was this very technique that kept me fed and happy years ago while living in Paris. Only instead of eggplants, I used zucchini - for a pea-green sauce as sweet as the day is long - or cauliflower. Both vegetables do stunningly well with long cooking times and a careful mashing, turning themselves into silky, toothsome sauces that you can brighten up with mint or parsley (for the zucchini) or a good grinding of hot red pepper flakes (for the cauliflower). Both do very well indeed with a judicious grating of Parmigiano on top.

In any case, it's a technique for your kitchen as indispensable as boiling eggs or mastering a very good, plain tomato sauce. Armed with just one eggplant, just a few handfuls of cauliflower florets or a zucchini or two, you can stew your way to spaghetti nirvana in the blink of an eye.

Did I mention the salt? Don't forget the salt. It's the difference between a sauce that makes you sit up and pay attention and a sauce that just hums quietly along instead of singing loud and clear.

One last thing: the recipe below says that a one-pound eggplant will be enough for a pound of spaghetti, but we ate far less spaghetti than that (190 grams for the two of us, actually) and while there was more sauce than any of my Italian family members would have deemed acceptable on our plates, you might want to adjust your sauce-to-noodle ratio as you see fit.

*As a result, I missed the Food Blogger Connect conference, which really was the worst luck of all. I'm sorry to have missed any of you intrepid readers who made it there!

Oh, and in completely unrelated news, The Wednesday Chef now has a Facebook page! Come on over, let's be friends.

Spaghetti with Let-My-Eggplant-Go-Free! Sauce
Serves 3 or 4

1 pound eggplant, cut into ½ inch slices
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, lightly smashed
2 springs thyme or oregano, chopped
1 cup chicken stock or water
2 tablespoons sun-dried or oven-dried tomatoes, minced
6 leaves basil, sliced thinly
Salt and pepper
1 pound spaghetti

1. Lightly salt the slices of eggplant, stack them back together and let sit for 20 minutes.

2. Put the olive oil in a wide, heavy saucepan, add the garlic cloves, and set over low heat.

3. Dry off the eggplant, cut it into chunks. When you start hearing the garlic sizzle a little and can smell it, drop in your eggplant and stir to coat it all with oil. Turn up the heat a little bit to medium high and add the thyme or oregano and stir. When the eggplant is turning translucent and softening, add the liquid, let it come to a boil, and turn it back down to medium-low. Let it bubble for a bit and cover it, leaving a crack for steam to escape. Stir once in a while so that the bottom doesn’t stick.

4. After about 20 minutes or so, the liquid in the eggplant pan should be mostly evaporated and the eggplant should be soft and melting. Mash it with a fork or spoon, and adjust the seasoning to taste.

5. Toss the eggplant purée with the spaghetti that you cooked al dente. Stir in the minced tomatoes and basil. You can gild the lily with drizzling on some more oil. Serve immediately.

Comments

[Adrienne]

Francis! He has a way with words, that man. This eggplant sauce looks wonderful, though you're right the color leaves a bit to be desired... as soon as eggplants hit the market I'll give this one a try.

Here's hoping next week is kinder and gentler!

[ahmet cihat toker]

reminded me of the classical pasta alla norma:

http://fxcuisine.com/Default.asp?language=2&Display=84&resolution=high

i really recommend ricotta salata on top. you can find it in the salumeria on stuttgarter platz.

[Jessika]

Oh, you have to go all out when you injure yourself huh?! How's your foot and have you had your car repaired or do you need a new one?

[Patty Marguet]

sorry about your accidents . . . did you walk under a ladder or something? i'm always looking for a simple but good sauce recipe so i'll give this one a try. thanks for sharing it and be careful.

patty

[Debjani Roy]

I´m so sorry about your run of bad luck, I hope next week works out better for you. I must try your sauce! It reminds me of something an Italian tutor cooked for me when I was at university. It´s supper simple, and really yum. Boil broccoli, long and hard, you want to be able to mush it into a sauce, add penne at the appropriate moment. Drain and mush the veg into the pasta, add olive oil, salt, parmesan and a little chilli. It was so good, and only needed one saucepan.

[Victoria]

Oh. My two favorites at one table enjoying dinner together. I would have settled to be a fly on the wall!

How good does this sound? You have NEVER steered me wrong with pasta sauce recipes even when they are embedded with other recipes. I can daydream about the ricotta stirred into the tomato sauce. THAT I can eat with a spoon.

I will be trying this very soon - like Saturday.

[Harriet Chilstrom]

Hi Martha, Sorry to read about your woes! I hope all that will be in the past now. I too have a great eggplant recipe. I will give it to you if you are interested. I don't know what ethnic groupe it comes from, but since my parents came from Romania, I suspect that is its origin. I think you will like it, let me know if you are interested. Harriet from Chino Ca.

[TheKitchenWitch]

Holy Run of Bad Luck, Batman! I am very relieved that it was just the car that was injured, though. Well, and the iPhone. And your foot. I had to laugh at your lament that you didn't photograph the carnage on the floor--spoken like a true blogger.

You are right that the sauce is ugly, but if it's delicious, who cares, right? I'll be trying this in late summer, when we are awash in zucchini and eggplant!

[elizabeth]

This looks...gah! So good. You have yet to steer me wrong when it comes to eggplant and pasta suggestions, so I must give this a try (though I might try adding vermouth and topping with a dollop of garlicky Greek yogurt).

So sorry to hear about your run of bad luck (and I thought my May was lousy!), but here's to things turning right side up again quickly!

[Erin Blogavich]

Sorry to hear about your week but, man, if it inspired this sauce I must say it was worth it!! This sounds delicious! Can't wait to try it. Thanks.

[Tracy]

Last year we diced eggplant and tomatoes from our garden. Extra virgin olive oil, salt pepper, garlic, onion, basil, parsley...one of the best sauces ever to hit pasta. Eggplant really lends itself well to sauce. Can't wait to replicate.

[Sommer @ A Spicy Perspective]

Sorry about your rough week! I had one of those a little while ago and am still recovering from a broken foot! The spaghetti looks lovely!

[Christine @ Fresh Local and Best]

Sorry about your rough week. I hope it gets better from here.

I've been meaning to use eggplants more often. This looks like a terrific recipe.

[Koek!]

That sauce WILL be made in my kitchen within a week. Gorgeous - just my kind of dish. But more than the dish, I love the NAME of the dish! Liberated eggplant. Too divine.
Robyn

[Vanessa]

Oh no, it sounds like you've had a bad time! Hopefully, the recipe is the start of a train of good events. Funnily, I was thinking I'd like a new recipe for pasta suace so thanks for answering my wishes. Friday night is pasta night and this will be on the menu.

[The French @ crispytarts]

Perfect for when my CSA box is loaded with eggplant!

[Sasa]

Gah! My sympathies! But like Vanessa says, this must just mean that next week is going to be *full* of awesomeness.

[Raquelita]

Having just smashed my knuckles against the serrated edge of my breadknife whilst washing up this morning, I have a smidgen of empathy and lots of sympathy for you! I clearly need to be making this sauce too!

On another note, HOW did my two favorite food bloggers end up at the same table, having dinner together??! (Just so you know, the two of you are the only two who can claim to possess coveted positions on my Bookmark Toolbar.) This blogosphere is clearly a small world. Oh, what I would have been a fly on the wall...

[Mrigaa]

I'm glad only the car was totaled and you are back and updating!

And that is a marvelously sexy-ugly sauce, and mashing great way to bypass the very sad thing that happens when one undercooks/underseasons thick slices of it and you feel like you're eating brand new kitchen sponge.

Bit like Indian-style baingan bharta, isn't it.

[Joanne]

They do say that when it rains it pours. But they also say there's a rainbow at the end of it all...and I think this may be it.

[A Mouse Bouche]

oh good lord does that look good. in fact, i'm already having a hard time focusing on my work today and now all possibility of getting anything done is out the window as all i can think about is getting a forkful of that into my mouth. sigh.

[noëlle {simmer down!}]

As per your suggestion I clicked over to the original recipe and was charmed to read the following in the ingredients list:
"3 cloves garlic, lightly smashed (I mean just flatten them, don’t take out your aggression on them)"
I have to confess I'm not very familiar with Lam's writing but will make a point to investigate further. :)

[Jill]

The sauce sounds tasty but I'm not a big fan of sun dried tomatoes. I wonder what would happen if I used fresh ones?

[elizabeth @ sophisticated pie]

there's something about your writing and eggplant. you convinced me to make the green bean masala recipe with eggplant, and now you've convinced me to run to the store, get some eggplant and make this! Ok- thinking about it, maybe its something with me and eggplant, but your writing and photos certainly push me over the edge.

[Christine]

When we were little my mom would serve us pasta with tomato sauce with fried slices of eggplant from the garden topped with basil (also from the garden) and parmegiano, and damned if it isn't one of my favorite meals to this day.

I have a feeling this would be ten different kinds of delicious, although I think I would cut down on the amount of liquid and let the eggplant hold onto whatever integrity it has after all that cooking without mashing. Yum, yum, yum.

[rebecca]

Luisa and Molly! Together at the same table?! *sigh* I wish I could have been there! What a small world!

I hope this week life is more gentle and kind to you! sounds like it was an intense and difficult week--I hope the worst is behind you :)

I grew up in israel with lots of yummy eggplant dishes. For some reason it is a big middle eastern dish. Hot fried eggplant and cold labane yogurt is one of my all time favorite foods. It is in.cred.i.ble!!!Eggplant with techina is not too bad either. And plain jane fried eggplant stuffed into my falafel, o my!!!

Anyway, this sauce sounds super flavorful and lovely. I will be trying it out at some point this summer.

In the meantime, say hi to the great Molly of Orangette (from the girl who brought her rugelach in n.y.c....hey! come to think of it--that is where i met *you*!!! You guys are my favorite bloggers :)

Bon Apetit!

[Meredi]

Good one! Thanx!
I'll pass on the chicken stock tho :)
Meredi

[Lora]

Sorry to hear about your accident. I totaled my car last year and walked out without a scratch, but the paramedics who showed up all knew my husband. The embarrassing result of living in a small German village. It definitely shook me up for awhile. This eggplant recipe looks deeelish. can't wait to try it. thanks!

[The Rowdy Chowgirl]

It's just as well that this sauce isn't a bright blood red tomato sauce, given your Lady Macbeth morning--there is only so much a person can take in their kitchen! Anyway, this looks scrumptious, and I'm looking forward to trying it.

[Caitlin]

This sounds fantastic! I love eggplant and will be trying this very soon.
http://amusebouche-caitlin.blogspot.com/

[Molly]

Honestly, you needn't have gone to such extraordinary (and excruciating!) lengths to bring us such deliciousness. But I'm so bookmarking this for late July... (and feeling certain there's boat loads of good karma, just around the corner!)

[Maddie]

I just received the first pattypan squash of the season in my CSA box. It's a nice glimpse at the zucchini and eggplant to come later! I'll definitely be trying this dish with when my farm-share gives me the right ingredients. :)

[eleni]

Pasta and eggplant are a perfect match... lovely done!!

[Zorra]

I'm printing this entry & mailing it to my 82-year old eggplant-loving Mom. (Though I'm never sure out if she really adores eggplant or just relishes making for her eggplant-loving daughters.) She'll be happy to add 1 more tasty but easy recipe to her large & varied collection for the purple veg. Bet she makes it soon!

[Kelsey/TheNaptimeChef]

Goodness, I hope you are OK! I LOVE this kind of sauce. There is a restaurant in Chelsea I love that tosses it with gnocchi and some fresh cubed mozzarella. Yum. Have fun with Molly!

[Sandy]

I'm a first time poster and wanted to say how much I love your writing/recipes. And hopefully the universe is done messing with you!

I'm so trying this recipe. My relationship with eggplant has been similar to Francis' so I'm hopeful as I know it's healthy and I keep trying to find ways to make it with success. I'm so glad you mentioned his history at Gourmet as I had no idea. I recently found him on Salon.com and really enjoy his writing as well. Now I have to go find all the Gourmet.com achives!

[square dining tables]

This is a healthy recipe! I would love to try this one! Thanks for the share.

[Liz]

I never would have guessed I'd like eggplant and pasta, but I do. I have a similar recipe from my mother in law who is from Sicily. Her recipe adds in zucchini and keeps it cubed.

Here is the recipe actually if you want to compare. http://www.simpleitaliancooking.com/recipes/eggplant_zucchini_pasta_recipe.htm.

This summer I hope to have a video. I will try your recipe as well, I like it with the basil too.

I hope you have a better next few weeks!

[Nadia]

I usually have trouble deciding what to do with aubergines as the splendidly gorgeous middle eastern dishes I'm used to usually involve copious amounts of olive oil and/or frying. This looks splendid AND healthy, thank you!

[Sues]

This looks absolutely awesome and I've bookmarked it to make ASAP :) Sorry your week was so ridiculous, but let's hope this upcoming week is much, much better!!

[Acountablelife.wordpress.com]

Eating this now. My 5-year old helped and is eating it as well! Now that is the mark of a good staple recipe.

[Enzo]

Sorry about your bad week (I'm having a bad week either!). I love aubergines and I'm going to try you recipie soon. It sounds delicious.

[vanillasugar]

yeah when it rains it pours. not sure why it all happens like that.
just got my iphone...feel as though i need to super encase it in something before i break it or drop it in the pool.
but what i really wanted to say...lol was this sauce, this sauce must be made and quick.

[Michelle@TastyThailand]

Love your Lady Macbeth opening, very funny. Gorgeous photos too.

[my little expat kitchen]

Sorry to hear about all the bad luck you're having! Hope everything gets better!
Your dish looks fantastic. Gotta love those aubergines.
Magda

[Lucy]

Just tried this and couldn't wait to comment asap. Made it with vegetable bouillon instead of chicken stock but its so good! It might not make it til dinner time. no basil in the house sadly, I imagine it takes it to a whole other level of amazing.

thanks for more inspiration!

[WineDineDivas]

Thank you for this delicious Aubergine recipe, have to try it very soon. Wishing you a FANTASTIC week!
Cheers,
Judit & COrina

[alexandria]

crazy-delicious, easy, and cheap to boot = awesome. made the following modifications: used whole wheat spaghetti; half a pound of pasta only (i wanted to have lots of sauce); 1/4 cup oil; and five garlic cloves (yes, five). next time i'd add a pinch of red pepper flakes at the start, but otherwise-- perfect. so, so good. this will become a standard for me. thanks for posting it!

[Meredi]

I really wanted to try this, but keep forgetting to buy the eggplant! Had a ton of carrots tho, so I finally made that Moroccan carrot soup you posted last year. It was very very nice! I did make some changes...added ginger root, a wee bit of caraway seed and cardoman in the saute...mmmm! The lemon, and the coriander definitely zing it up...and a dab of yogurt on top makes it perfect. Subtle and delicious.ThanX!
p.s. It's nice to add a ladle of canned chick peas to it as well.

[silverpony]

this was most delicious, even my two year old toddler son slurped every spaghetti and sauce out of the bowl. thank you.