Puttanesca Sauce with Eggplant

purple eggplant	1 medium
salt	4 T, as required
water	1 c, as required
lemon juice	1 T, as required
olive oil	3 T
garlic	1 clove
black olives	1 c pitted and sliced
capers in vinegar	1 T
basil	1/2 t
rosemary	1/2 t
chianti	1/2 c
tomato sauce	2 c

This vegetarian dish blends the flavor and color of eggplant with black olives and capers of the Neapolitan puttanesca, “prostitute’s style”, sauce.

Cut off the top of the eggplant, dice it into 3/4 inch pieces and toss them in a large bowl with about 4 T of salt, preferably uniodized. Add about 1 T of lemon juice and just enough water to cover the eggplant. Let it soak for about 1 hour, then wash thoroughly and drain. Salting the eggplant can be omitted, especially if young eggplant is used, but the skin should not be discarded for this dish.

Heat the olive oil in a very hot skillet and fry the eggplant stirring regularly until it begins to brown. Add the sliced black olives, capers, rosemary and finely chopped garlic and continue cooking over high heat for about 5 minutes. Add the wine and cook over high heat for several minutes. Add the basil and tomato sauce and continue cooking over high heat until it begins to simmer. Lower the heat and cook with occasional stirring for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve over pasta.

Recipe from An Eclectic Cookbook (Copyright © 1987, John S. Garavelli), page 4–12.