vegetable tartine

tiles of roasted zucchini, summer squash and sweet bell peppers, mortar of eggplant skin puree

Why do we peel eggplants and discard the skin?

Some say that the skin is bitter and tough. This can be true with the large, dark globe varieties. But I enjoy the taste of bitter, either as the focus of a dish, or as a contrast to other flavors. And it can indeed be tough, especially when cooked with dry heat. But when slowly stewed with roasted garlic and Aleppo pepper, it makes a flavorful and silky puree.

Taste and texture aside, a compelling reason to rescue eggplant skin from the

bin is nutrition. A phytonutrient, nasunin, is found in eggplant skin. Nasunin is a

potent antioxidant and free radical scavenger that protects the cell membranes

in the brain.

Eggplant skin = brain food = greater capacity to think about food. I love closing circles.

Thinking about food is not always an intellectual exercise. Sometimes, it is finding the sublime in the banal.