balsamic eggplant gnocchi

I spent the weekend wrapped up in a yoga stage ("stage" being one of those lovely words that I only really know in French, meaning something between a retreat, intensive, and internship... in this case meaning four hours on Saturday after rehearsing in the morning and then five hours today in the yoga studio downtown, working with Camélia, the teacher of my teacher/grandmother willow/guru lady).  Lots of thinking and acknowledging thoughts and trying to figure out my own heart, which lead me to spend the evening quietly by myself, cooking and smiling. So, voilà, the fruits of my labour:


Balsamic Eggplant Gnocchi
-- This fills up two hungry people.  Gnocchi satisfies all sorts of cravings, so this doesn't really need a side dish, but if you wanted, it would be great with fresh citrus-y greens and a glass of good red wine.  I love gnocchi's texture, but if you don't have any on hand I'm sure would be great over almost any pasta (except somehow in my head spaghetti... Angel hair, fettucini and any shorter tubular pasta all seem like they'd have a good chance), and it's fun to have a non-tomato veggie sauce in the repertoire. Gnocchi has a fair amount of protein (a large portion - 200g - of gnocchi is around 400 calories and 13 g of protein), but if you really wanted to amp that up you could add some tofu to the sauce as well. If you don't have bouillon, just salted water will do, but a little extra flavor is always nice. And naturally, the veggies can substituted in and out at will, depending on your tastes and who you're serving and what you have within the nearest meter or two. Malheureusement, I happened to leave the goat cheese out, meaning naturally I had to suffer through a cheese course after dinner, a few slices of a crisp granny smith apple with goat cheese, which was pretty perfect.  Dessert should be on the light-and-fluffy side, maybe just fruit or a pudding or lemon meringue... All told it takes 50 minutes or so to cook, but 20 minutes of that is downtime while the eggplant sits. --

You need:
1 medium eggplant/aubergine
salt
paper towel (not to eat, clearly... but to gather anyway)
1 yellow onion
3 small carrots
4-5 white mushrooms
1 large clove of garlic
handful of corn, either thawed from frozen or canned
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
herbes de provence
1/2 of a vegetable broth bullion cube
1 packet of gnocchi, flour or potato (mine was 400 g, for 2 people)
goat cheese for sprinkling (or if that's not your thing, I'm sure a good parmesan or feta would also be all sorts of yummy)

Start by slicing off the ends of the eggplant and then cutting it into rounds about a half inch / one cm thick.  Line a bowl or colander with paper towel and place one layer of eggplant inside, then sprinkle with salt.  Repeat the paper towel - eggplant - salt - paper towel until you've used up all the eggplant, and let sit for 20-30 minutes.

--I can't remember where I learned this (the Moosewood cookbook maybe?), but it draws the moisture out and helps the eggplant cook with more concentrated flavor, while being less goopy and I think also needing less oil. Happy day all around. Feel free to have a glass of wine, do some yoga, or see if you can't plan out the rest of your life in the 20 minutes or so that you have before you need to start cutting up onion... --

Heat the olive oil in a fairly big sauce pan, just enough to get the whole bottom of the pan slippery.  Dice the onion and cook over medium-low heat for about 5-7 minutes, until the onion starts to become soft and wonderful smelling, stirring occasionally. Toss in a pinch of the herbes de provence when you feel like it.

Wipe off the salt from the eggplant if you can with the paper towel, and cut it into cubes.  Toss it in with the onion and keep stirring every so often.

Cut up the mushroom and carrots, relatively small, and dice the garlic.  After letting the eggplant cook for about 10 minutes (aka your cutting and dicing time), just as it starts to become soft, add the other veggies and garlic, stir, and let them cook as well.

After a minute or two, add a splash of balsamic vinegar, making sure to stir it in as it bubbles away.  I wanted to taste the eggplant, so I used a fairly small glug (that'd be the official measurement) to make sure the other flavors came through, but as per everything, to taste.

Add the corn, for a little pop of color, and keep stirring and cooking for another 5 minutes -- about as long as it takes for the gnocchi to be ready.

Boil a large pot of water, with the vegetable bouillon dissolving as the water comes to a boil. Add the gnocchi, and cook as the packet instructs, which should be to wait for the gnocchi to pop up to the surface and then cook another minute or so before straining or scooping out with a slotted spoon.

Serve! Gnocchi, vegetables, and then top with the goat cheese and let the heat of the food make it just the right amount of melted and gooey. The eggplant should be soft and almost creamy, the gnocchi their own firm-but-squishy texture, and the carrots and other veggies with just a hint of crunch. All that's left is to enjoy!