FFWD Eggplant Tartine

I've always loved eggplant.  Paul has been a tougher sell, but he's a great sport and has definitely learned to enjoy it, as long as it isn't too plain.  I have lots of favorite eggplant recipes--roasted with mustard vinaigrette, grilled with only olive oil, eggplant parmesan, eggplant stacks with feta, baba ghanoush, Marcella Hazan's eggplant salad, I could go on and on--but I'm always happy to try a new one.  I was very pleasantly surprised with this one.  It didn't sound that interesting, but I really liked the method for roasting the eggplant and the salad on top was very refreshing.  I normally slice my eggplant thinner and roast it for a shorter amount of time (about 20 minutes), turning it once.  I was surprised when this recipe called for thicker slices, roasting for twice as long, and no turning, but it was very easy and it worked.  The slices were perfectly cooked.  I served this as part of our Labor Day dinner with Dorie's corn soup and cheese and crackers, and was very happy with everything.  My favorite corn soup is still the No-Cream Creamy Corn Soup from here--it has a Chipotle-Lime drizzle that is just incredible--but this one was also very good.

My goal is to finish catching up on the recipes I missed before I joined the group in the next couple of months, and to that end I also made the Slow Roasted Tomatoes.  Paul's cherry tomatoes have been doing great this year, and they were absolutely delicious roasted.  I've been making them a lot this summer and adding them to eggs, pasta, stuffed zucchini blossoms, and anything else I can think of.  I have a bunch of fairly similar recipes for slow roasted tomatoes and this one wasn't my favorite, but it certainly wasn't bad.  When I posted about the carrot salad, Rose commented that some of the toughest FFWD recipes are the ones for which we already have good recipes.  Both the corn soup and the slow roasted tomatoes made me think of her comment.  They were perfectly good recipes, but I still like my old ones better.  The eggplant, on the other hand, was a definitely keeper.  I'll definitely be making it again.  I think it'd be a perfect appetizer for a summer dinner party.  It's easy to prepare ahead of time, pretty, and delicious.