Eggplant and Smoked Mozzarella Risotto

Ice cubes at the North Pole.

Wolly mittens on a summer day.

Dental floss for a baby.

Eggplant can be a tough sell, too, especially for kids. Especially for Chloe.

We've been trying to convince Chloe for years that she likes eggplant. We had a bit of success masking it and even more success frying it. Granted, shoe leather would also be tasty fried, but I was hoping that after eating eggplant fried, she'd have enough of a positive association that she would be willing to try other eggplant dishes.

But apparently her memory of her eggplant tolerance is short.

She ate Bhagan Bharta a few weeks ago and liked it. But when we sat down to this risotto dish last night, one of our favorites, she announced "I don't like eggplant."

After we told her how good it was, oohing and aahing about the creamy smoked mozzarella, she eventually agreed to let us put a bit on her plate so long as it was just the rice without any of the eggplant. She nibbled at that and was willing to have a bit more.

The second round, her serving had eggplant in it but she pushed it to the side of her plate. At least she let it sit on her plate. Is that progress?

So she ate just a bit of rice and devoured the Swiss chard instead.

Ironic isn't it, that she will eat Swiss chard?

At least she did until one of her pieces of Swiss chard touched the eggplant piled on the edge of her plate. She refused to eat that bit of chard, quickly sneaking it onto my plate.

And so it goes, one small step at a time, in the eggplant battles.

As for the rest of us, there is not a scrap of this risotto left in the refrigerator today. Some of us had more than one serving, and what was left after dinner was carried off in lunch boxes today.

2009: Acorn Squash Stuffed with Curried Lentils
2010: Grilled Eggplant Baba Ganoush
2011: Soft Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes, Herbs, and Sour Cream

Eggplant and Smoked Mozzarella Risotto

 

I have given up on the salting eggplant thing. If there is a difference in the taste, it is so minor that I don't think it's worth it. Also, after we had this the other night, Oscar commented that he thought the eggplant should be cut smaller "so that it melts into the risotto." I had left the pieced big so that Chloe could pick them out more easily, but I agree that the ideal size would have been a smaller dice for the eggplant, about 1/2-inch pieces.

Serves 6-8 as a main course
15 minutes preparation time
30 minutes cooking time

7 cups vegetable stock
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
2 medium eggplants, peeled and diced
1 large tomato, diced
2 sprigs fresh oregano, chopped (about 1 tablespoon)
2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 pound smoked mozzarella, diced

Heat the stock in a sauce pan over medium heat.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook it until it is a deep golden color. Remove it from the pan and discard (or if you love garlic like we do, spread it on a piece of bread for a little snack while you're cooking).

Turn the heat up to medium high and add the eggplant and a few shakes of salt. Cook for a few minutes until the eggplant begins to soften. Add the tomato and oregano and stir.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the rice and the white wine. Cook, stirring, until the wine is absorbed into the rice. Add a couple of ladels of stock and stir a few times, until the rice is absorbed into the rice.

Each time the stock is absorbed into the rice add more, and stir periodically. You don't need to stir continuously, just enough to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan. When most of the stock is gone, taste the rice for doneness. Is should be tender without any crunch but not mushy.

When the rice is done, stir in the smoked mozzarella and stir to incorporate it fully. Serve immediately.

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Comments

[Christina]

Sounds yummy - I'm going to make this tonight. My husband and I love eggplant - and we can see if this will change our son's mind about the vegetable! Thanks :-)

[Margy]

Good luck, Christina! I hope you have better luck than we did.

[Dad]

Next time, call it "aubergine." Dad