Eggplant - ricotta dumplings in tomato sauce

Scofflaw meatless meatballs

We decided to take an end of summer vacation in my favorite place in the world, my hometown of Montreal. After enjoying delicious dinners and fun times with family up north (for readers not from Montreal, “up north” is the local locution for the Laurentian mountains, where many Montrealers have cottages on lakes. It’s a lot like the Adirondacks, but less built up) we started feeling poorly. Husband was knocked out cold by what appeared to be a flu, but was of course our friend Covid.

Not wanting to infect any more family or friends (or strangers, for that matter) we drove home. I had visited the Jean Talon Market and had packed the fridge with fresh vegetables for a week of meals… what to do? “Just pack it,” said my husband, who is extremely practical and thinks I am a craven rule-follower. He routinely mocks me for getting out of the “10 Items or Less” line at the supermarket when I have 12 items in my basket. “You’re so Canadian.”

“What’s the worst that can happen?” he said. “They take them away from you at the border?” The thought of the car being searched, my prized local corn, tomatoes, and eggplants, the tiny, delicious wild blueberries from Lac St. Jean, the hunks of local cheese, ending up in an American border trashcan, or the gullet of a border agent was less upsetting than the humiliation of getting busted. There is no word for the very specific, scorching embarassment of a natural rule follower being exposed breaking a rule.

Happily, no one was interested in anything in our bags, and while I don’t recommend smuggling fruits and vegetables across the border, in this case it was a godsend, since we have enough healthy food in the kitchen for the next few days that we don’t need to go to the store and infect anyone.

I found an Ottolenghi recipe that was a delicious option for our return. I liked the addition of paprika to an otherwise ordinary tomato sauce. I did change it to a deeper fry, just because sautéing as he suggests makes it hard to ensure the dumplings are cooked through without burning them.

Ingredients

1¼ cups dried breadcrumbs (I used fresh, because that’s all I had and didn’t feel like drying them in the oven, and it was fine)

2 pounds of eggplants (two large ones) peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes

olive oil

salt and black pepper

6 tbsp ricotta

grated parmesan cheese

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

4.5 tsp flour

6 garlic cloves, grated

basil leaves, chopped

28 oz cans whole peeled tomatoes (you can run them through a blender to make a smooth passata, or just crush them with your hands as I did if you like more texture)

2 tbsps double concentrated tomato paste

1½ tsp sugar

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

¾ tsp paprika

1 tsp dried oregano

1⅔ cups water (I used a little less)

Instructions

Heat oven to 450F.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Add the chopped eggplant to the pan and toss with 5 tbsp olive oil, ½ tsp salt, and black pepper to taste. Spread out into as even a layer as possible and place in the oven. Bake until the pieces start to char, tossing halfway through. The whole dish develops much more flavor if you are willing to let the eggplant get very dark both in the oven, and later in dumpling form in the frying pan. The original recipe says 30 minutes, but my oven runs hot so I pulled them out in about 20 minutes.

Remove the eggplant pieces from the oven and chop until they break down and form a chunky mash. Scoop into a large bowl and let it cool to room temperature.

Once cool, add ricotta, parmesan, egg, egg yolk, flour, breadcrumbs, two cloves of grated garlic, and some salt and pepper. Mix well. Season to taste with more salt, if needed.

Grease your hands and then scoop the eggplant mixture into golf-ball sized dumplings. Mine were a little larger than golfballs, and I got about 16 dumplings (17 including my sacrificial dumpling).

Pour about 1 cup of oil in a pan with deep sides, or a Dutch oven medium-high heat. This should be a low bath of oil, like for fried chicken. You can use olive oil, but it would be a little spendthrift in my opinion, since the oil is not terribly usable afterward, and EVOO runs the risk of burning anyway.

I suggest frying a test dumpling first, since the difference in cooking time between a slightly mushy inside and a firm one with just the right chew is not long. The oil should be about 350 degrees. Add half of the dumplings to the pan and fry for 3-4 minutes or until dark brown and crispy. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining dumplings. Set aside.

Heat oven to 400F.

Now make the sauce: put 2 tbsp of olive oil into a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the remaining garlic and tomato paste to the pan and saute until garlic is fragrant andd tomato paste has fried to a brick red (about 1 minute). Add tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, pepper flakes, paprika, oregano, salt, and black pepper to taste.

Cook until thickened. Pour in the water. Bring to a simmer, then lower to medium and simmer for about 10 more minutes until thickened.

Pour the sauce into a 9x13-inch baking dish in an even layer. Top with the dumplings, nestling them into the sauce. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbling. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with basil and more parmesan cheese just before serving.