It's eggplant season and I've been shopping at farmers markets lately and ran across white eggplant! I bought one just for the novelty of it. I have a favorite eggplant curry recipe I make, but I wanted to make something that would still show some of its unique color. I searched pinterest for eggplant recipes and everyone was making eggplant pizza! What a great idea! I bought some delicious cheese called Midnight Moon Cypress Grove and resisted the desire to buy bread to pair with it so I thought they would match up perfectly! It's a hard goat cheese from Holland and its flavor is described as "nutty and brown buttery up front with a long caramel finish". You must try this cheese and check out my other favorite cheeses here.

I made the recipe pretty simply based on how it looked but afterward, I felt the eggplant wasn't seasoned right. I did another search and compared all the recipes and discovered that this dish was a Julia Child recipe! I loved the movie about her, but as a vegetarian never tried any of her recipes. Here's her recipe done properly and you can't be lazy, you really need to follow all the steps for a rich flavor.


Ingredients
1 Eggplant
Cheese
Tomatoes
Italian seasoning

Directions
1.   Slice the eggplant 1 inch thick and put the slices on a paper towel and sprinkle both sides with salt. Let sit for        20 minutes to draw out the liquid.  Then blot the eggplant to remove the excess water and salt. 
2.   Preheat oven to 375 and grease a baking sheet with olive oil. 
3.   Arrange the eggplant slices on the baking sheet and sprinkle with oil and Italian seasoning.
4.   Roast in the oven for 25 minutes then remove the eggplant and turn the oven to Broil.
5.   Add your favorite toppings: marinara sauce or grape tomatoes, cheese, basil, and or spinach. 
6.   Broil until cheese is melted, about 2 minutes.