Baked eggplants with oregano

It is not necessarily that the preparations must be very elaborate to be good; rather, in truth, I have a preference for the simple dishes in which is able better to appreciate the taste of the ingredients. The kitchen for eveyday, moreover,must be suitable besides to the contemporary style of life that asks for a moderate quantity of calories, considering that our days develop sedentarily.

In this article, I propose you a recipe that sees how protagonist the queen of the Sicilian summer tables: 'a mulinciana (the eggplant in sicilian language).

The name originates from the Arabic al-badingian. At the beginning, in Italy it was called petonciana or petonciano or also petronciano but, to avoid fraintendimenti on its alimentary ownerships, the first part of the name it was changed in apple - the fruit for antonomasia - giving so origin to the name melangiana and then melanzana (eggplant). Popularly, its name was interpreted as insane apple, really because it is not edible raw in how much toxic.

The origins of the eggplant, that it belongs to the family of the Solanacees, are not well known. It seems originates from the warm zones of Southern Asia, possibly in Oriental India, where it was spontaneously born and it was consumed preserved in brine and enriched with spicy spice.

This vegetable was unknown to Greek and Romans, it landed in Sicily around 1300 with the Arabs that already from the XII century they had discovered the precious alimentary virtues of it and they cultivated it in the whole North Africa. Beginning from 1440, to work of some Carmelitanis, also spread in the whole West and therefore in Europe, but only where for climatic matters it was possible to cultivate it.

In 1550 Italiano Soderini, Italian naturalist, quotes it in his Essay of the crop of the vegetable gardens and gardens. This vegetable for a lot of time not received some success, because it was belived that it was able to cause the mental illness.

The recipe:

Ingredients (for 4 persons): 2 big eggplants (better if violet type); 2 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper; extravergin olive oil; oregano; baking paper.

Procedure: Preheat oven to 392 degrees F (200°C). Cut the core of the eggplants, to wash them and halve in the sense of the length. Put back them on a dripping pan, or in a baking-pan with the low edges, covered with baking paper. Make in the pulp some surface cuts in a sense and in the other to create a sort of network.

Divide the garlic in small pieces and insert them in the cuts. Season with salt, pepper, oil and oregano and to bake in oven for about 40 minute. Verify dish piercing a wood spit, that must easily penetrate in the pulp.

Serve lukewarm as appetizer or as side dish.

Good summer things to everybody!

Suggestions: once cooked, you can empty the eggplants from the pulp, to mince it and realize a paté to serve with some croutons of rustic bread or, adding 2 spoons of olive oil, to season the spaghetti or the boiled rice.