pull up a chair

when the day presents itself as sooty afghan, gray and soft and without shadow. when the air is cool, so cool that cranking the oven is not an act of self-destruction. when the bins at farmers’ market are nearly tumbling to the parking lot below, so weighted by their zaftig field-plucked wares. well, on summer days like that the itch to cook begins.

and so it was the other morning i woke up with eggplant visions. eggplant layered lushly with cheesy-herby oozy pillows in between. all bathed in marinara. baked. dubbed summer’s abbondonza eggplant lasagna.

i promised easy reading here in summer time. and thus, below, i keep my promise, with nothing more strenuous to read than a grocery list of things to gather, and step-by-step notes so you can play along.

abbondonza eggplant lasagna, with more than a few idiosyncratic twists

(as always, i read a few recipes, extract a few cues and follow my whims from there. this began from something that zipped by me on instagram, and led me to a website called mediterranean something or other, and wound up so delicious i gobbled two oozy squares the size of my dinner plate. my annotations below in italics, which is basically me talking back to the recipe. . .)

Ingredients

2 to 3 eggplants (about 1 ½ pounds), sliced lengthwise into ½-inch thick slices (about 10 to 12 slices)
1 zucchini, sliced into coins (or honestly any shape you choose)
1 pint cherry tomatoes
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
1 large egg
1 15-oz tub part-skim ricotta cheese
1 ½ cup part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
3 garlic cloves minced (i squeezed mine through garlic press)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and fully dried (wring out all the water)
1 cup packed chopped fresh parsley
½ cup packed chopped fresh basil, ⅔ ounce
Black pepper to your liking
2 generous cups marinara sauce of choice (i used trader giotto’s organic tomato basil marinara)

Instructions

• Season the eggplant slices on both sides with kosher salt and set aside for 20 to 30 minutes (if you don’t have the time, this step can be optional). i skipped this part, because i didn’t have time and because i recently read that these days eggplant has been cured of its bitterness.
  
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and position a rack in the middle.
  
• Wipe the eggplant slices very well with a paper towel (you want to dry it well and remove any excess salt), then arrange on parchment-lined baking sheet (or two if needed). Brush both sides of the eggplant with extra virgin olive oil. Roast in the heated oven until the eggplant softens and becomes pliable (about 15 to 20 minutes or so on the first side, at least another 10 minutes for the B side, which might be because i have a cranky old oven). to this step i added sliced zucchini, and a tub of cherry tomatoes, similarly brushed with oil, and roasted on their own sheet pan.
  
• While the eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes are roasting, prepare the ricotta filling. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg. Add the ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, ¼ Parmesan, garlic, oregano, spinach and chopped herbs. Add a small pinch of kosher salt and black pepper to your liking. Mix well to combine. i wandered out to my so-called farm (a raised bed alongside the back alley) and snipped a cup’s worth of basil and another of flat-leaf parsley; the freshness filled the air surrounding my cutting board.
  
• Remove the eggplant, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes from the oven. Lower the heat to 375 degrees F.
  
• Prepare a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Pour a bit of the pasta sauce (i used 1 cup of trader joe’s marinara) and spread it out into one layer. Lay a few eggplant slices (anywhere from 4 to 6 and it’s fine if they overlap a bit). Next, add half the zucchini slices and half the roasted cherry tomatoes. Spread 1/2 of the ricotta filling, then spread a thin layer of the sauce. Repeat the process in the same pattern. Spread the final layer of sauce and follow with the remaining ½ cup mozzarella cheese and ¼ cup of Parmesan.
  
• Cover the dish tightly with foil. Bake in the heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, then carefully uncover and return to the oven. Bake for another 10 to 20 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the edges of the lasagna turn a nice golden brown.
  
• Let the lasagna rest for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
• Slice and savor. And then daydream about it till you get around to making it again.
  

not all who wander to the chair believe in the stove as kitchen essential, and thus for those good souls and anyone else who never minds a blessing, here’s a treasure sent to me weeks back by dear beloved chair friend nan. it’s a blessing from kate bowler, who is herself something of a wonder. a four-times NYT best-selling author, a professor of american religious history at duke divinity school, the scholar who wrote the book on the prosperity gospel, a wife and mother and 35-year-old when she was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, deemed incurable, and now (nine years later) is cancer-free, she’s taken as her mission “giving you permission to be human.” fully human: warts, dents, soft spots, wonders, glories, whole truths and nothing but the truths.

i’ve been in a room where kate was speaking and she is hilarious. and self-deprecating. and doesn’t present herself as the eighth wonder of the world (which isn’t always the case at writing festivals that showcase those who’ve gained fame by building sentences that grow into paragraphs that fly off the shelves and rack up fine profits). so, with no further ado, and deep thanks to our beloved nan, here is a blessing from kate that, to my mind, gets to the heart of so much that matters:

the blessing above is from kate’s book of blessings, co-written with the lovely jessica richie, and titled “The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days.”

may all of us work to be the ones who notice the light in their eyes, or when that light dims, and to always not be afraid of scooting up close, close as need be, to their suffering.

and that’s the news from the summer kitchen this week. xox

where did you find blessing this week, at the cookstove or otherwise?