If you're anything like me, you might find the farmers' market overwhelming. There's tons of wonderful, fresh, locally grown produce all around you. What do you get? What do you pass up? Usually there's not much I pass up -- which leaves me with a lot of produce.
Recently I had a surplus of tomatoes. I'm a huge sucker for ripe, summer tomatoes. I bought small yellow pear tomatoes, shiny cherry tomatoes, large red tomatoes, and egg-shaped plum tomatoes. I had done a good job of using up the smaller tomatoes -- mainly by popping some in my mouth every time I walked past the bowl of them. And I also used them in salads and with some mini burgers we recently made for dinner. I chopped up the larger ones to have with pasta and pesto, but the plum tomatoes were still awaiting their purpose.
I just so happened to have a couple of white and purple eggplants that I also couldn't help buying at the farmers' market and figured I'd make something with these and the plum tomatoes. I came up with a very simple recipe that was still incredibly tasty and really let the true flavors of the tomato and eggplant come through, which when they're farm fresh are truly delightful.
Eggplant and Tomato Stacks
Ingredients
2 plum tomatoes
1 white eggplant
1 purple eggplant
Coarse salt and pepper
Olive oil
Tomato paste
Basil leaves
Preparation
Peel eggplants and slice into 1/4-inch thick rounds. Sprinkle with salt.
Slice tomatoes into similar-sized rounds, and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Set grill pan over medium high heat. Pour in enough olive oil to coat pan.
Mix a little bit of olive oil and tomato paste in a small bowl. Brush both sides of eggplant slices with the mixture.
Grill the eggplant slices until brown and soft, turning halfway through.
Place the largest eggplant pieces on a plate to be your bottom layer. (I was able to make 4 stacks.) Top each with a tomato slice. Add another slice of eggplant and another tomato slice. Repeat once more. Then finish with an eggplant slice. Decorate with basil leaves.
What's your favorite thing to treat yourself to at the farmers' market? Mine is definitely tomatoes, but fresh corn on the cob is a close second.