Melanzane tonnate

The tasty tuna sauce called salsa tonnata isn't just for vitello tonnato

Did I ever tell you I love salsa tonnata? If you don’t know it, salsa tonnata is a wonderfully tasty and creamy smooth cold tuna sauce made by blending jarred or canned tuna with mayo, capers and anchovies. There’s no cooking involved, and you can throw it together literally in seconds. No wonder it’s a summer staple in Italian cookery.

Aside from its classic use in vitello tonnato, known in English as tunnied veal, there are all sorts of other uses for salsa tonnata. Here’s one that may sound a bit odd at first blush, but is actually genius: melanzane tonnate, grilled or griddled eggplant slices napped with salsa tonnata.

Assuming you don’t bother with pre-salting the eggplants—which you shouldn’t need to do if they’re young and fresh—you can whip this dish up in less than 15 minutes, with only five minutes or so of actual cooking. So it’s the perfect dish for these dog days of summer.

Melanzane tonnate makes for a lovely summer starter or buffet dish. In larger portions it could even serve as a light main course or weeknight dinner.

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Good News: Website Improvements

A quick word about our main Memorie di Angelina website.

With traffic to the site increasing and its overall size growing, over the years the website had outgrown our old hosting platform, regularly exceeding the platform’s bandwidth limit by significant margins. It was a “good” problem to have, but the upshot was slower and slower load times. It was increasingly frustrating for me, as it must have been for our readers.

Well, in the last week or so we’ve taken some steps to improve the user experience. First, our website designer optimized the site for better loading times. And then we moved to a new hosting service with no bandwidth limits and a number of ‘under the hood’ features for faster loading times.

You should now find the site is a whole lot snappier than it was. For me, It’s a dramatic change for the better. Pages now load virtually instantaneously. In all honesty, I should have done this a while ago, but better late than never.

But that’s not all! The site now has an enhanced search bar that allows you to use natural language to find the recipes you’re interested in. For example, you can type in “Show me meatless summer recipes from Campania” or “pastas you can make in 30 minutes or less”. Or whatever else you’re looking for.

Do give it a try and let me know what you think. You’ll find the search bar in the middle of our front page and in the top right hand corner of every post.

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Involtini di melanzane

As much as I adore a proper parmigiana di melanzane, it has to be said it’s quite a project. So for moments when you don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen, you might want to add these involtini di melanzane, or Eggplant Rolls, to your repertoire.

While they have that same unbeatable combination of eggplant with tomato and cheese, involtini di melanzane are much easier and quicker to make than a parmigiana. In fact, if you’re working with young eggplant that don’t need pre-salting, you can whip up a batch of involtini in under an hour without a sweat. Not as quick as this week’s featured recipe, but still very reasonable.

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Cordon bleu di melanzane

Summer is usually a time for no fuss, easy peasy cooking. But if you’re in the mood for something fancy, or Cordon bleu di melanzane fits the bill perfectly. You insert slices of ham and cheese between two slices of eggplant to make a kind of ‘sandwich’, which is then breaded and fried as you would regular cutlets. Crispy on the outside, creamy and savory on the inside, Cordon bleu di melanzane is sure to please just about anyone, even those who aren’t keen on vegetables.

I think a cordon bleu di melanzane is best served as a semi-vegetarian second course, complemented with a green or mixed salad as a side.

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Polpette di melanzane

Polpette di melanzane, or eggplant ‘meatballs’ are made almost exactly like classic meatballs but substituting the flesh of a roasted eggplant for the meat—a brilliant idea, given the meaty taste and texture of eggplant. Like so many dishes of the cucina povera, this was no doubt born from necessity, with incidentally delicious results.

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Melanzane a funghetto

Don’t let the name of this dish fool you, there are no mushrooms in melanzane a funghetto, also known by its Neapolitan dialect name, melanzane «a fungetiello» The name refers to the way in which the eggplant is cooked, reminiscent of the classic sautéed mushrooms. Like so many summer dishes, it is quickly made and very tasty.

The dish exists in both ‘white’ or ‘red’ versions. I suspect that the tomato-less version is the original—it uses the classic Italian sauté technique—but these days, I dare say that the ‘red’ version is better known. Either way, it’s absolutely gorgeous with grilled or roasted meats or fish.

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Melanzane alla tarantina

In summer you just want something lighter and easier to make without skimping on taste. Melanzane alla tarantina, or Eggplant Taranto Style, fits the bill perfectly.

The method is simplicity itself. You start by cutting the eggplant in half and soaking them in salted water to purge them of any bitterness. You then cut the flesh in a cross-hatch pattern and spread a savory mince of olives, capers, fresh herbs and grated cheese over the surface and into the incisions. Thus “semi-stuffed”, the eggplants halves are drizzled with olive oil and roasted in the oven or—even better in my estimation—grilled until very tender.

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Melanzane sott’olio

Using the technique for putting up vegetables known as sott’olio, literally “under oil”, you cut the eggplant into strips, salt them overnight, then lightly parboil them in a mixture of vinegar and water, and finally cure them in oil with garlic and herbs.

Though traditionally a way to put up the last of the summer eggplant for the colder months, there’s no need to wait to enjoy them, whether as antipasto on their own or as a topping for bruschetta, as part of a rice salad or as a side for roasted or grilled meats.

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