Eggplant Antipasti

Name: Eggplant antipasti recipe ❤ to make yourself with step by step photos, nutritional information and calories. Prepare Italian antipasto vegetables in the oven, serve vegetables cold or warm. Top cooking ideas for pickling, variants Tip for aubergine antipasti with tomato sauce as a classic caponata. Answers to the most common cooking questions and other top 3* recipe ideas from the chef at a glance.
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: eggplant 1 Piece; primal salt 6 Pinches; black ground pepper 4 Pinches; Olive oil 50 ml; thyme 4 Pinches; balsamico 5 Drops

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Author:
Thomas Sixt is a chef, food photographer, cookbook author and blogger.
Here he shares recipes, answers cooking questions and helps with cooking.

You can find my eggplant antipasti recipe in this post.

Today we prepare the aubergines traditionally in the oven.

As a simple side vegetable, it goes well with fried and grilled dishes.

In Italian cuisine, it is part of the starter with antipasto.

I wish you a lot of fun while tasting and afterwards in the kitchen!

Table of Contents

1. Recipe Eggplant Antipasti
2. Calories and Nutritional Facts Eggplant Vegetables
3. Prepare Eggplant Antipasti In the Oven
4. Eggplant Antipasti Cold Or Warm
5. Marinate the Eggplant Antipasti
6. Eggplant Antipasti In Tomato Sauce
7. Frequently Asked Questions About Eggplant Antipasti
8. More Antipasti Recipe Ideas

1. Recipe Eggplant Antipasti

Here are the step-by-step instructions with lots of photos.

Please note the extended cooking tips after the recipe.

You can send me cooking questions at the bottom of the page using the comment function.

Eggplant Antipasti

Cooked, photographed and written down by chef Thomas Sixt.

Servings 2

Calories 212

Total Time 25 Min.

Preparation Time 15 Min.

Cook Time 0 Min.

Simple instructions for preparing vegetable antipasti with eggplant.

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Ingredients

Prepare
1	Piece	eggplant
6	Pinches	primal salt
4	Pinches	black ground pepper
50	ml	Olive oil
Marinate
4	Pinches	thyme
5	Drops	balsamico (Aceto Balsamico silver or gold)

Instruction

Cut eggplant

Wash and dry the aubergine and cut into long slices 0.5 cm thick.

Optionally, you can salt the vegetable slices and let them steep for 30 minutes.

Dab off the moisture, then continue processing.

Preheat the oven on grill at 240°C.

Prepare grilling

Place the aubergine slices on an oven rack.

Your oven stays clean if you slide an oven tray under the grid.

Season the vegetable slices with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

Slide the grill grid into the oven, on the top shelf or the second shelf from the top, and grill the vegetable slices.

grilling

Please stand by the stove and watch the coloring of the melanzani slices.

Aubergine Eggplant slices turned for frying

Turn around

After 4-7 minutes of cooking and adequate browning, see last picture, turn the vegetable slices on the rack.

Season the vegetable slices on the second side with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

Grill ready

Cook the second side of the aubergine slices under the grill in the same way and observe the browning.

Take the soft grilled vegetable slices out of the oven and let them cool down.

Serve

Arrange the cooled aubergine slices on plates and refine with olive oil, optionally balsamic vinegar.

You can sprinkle fresh or dried thyme or add basil leaves.

Optionally add crispy fried young garlic.

Antipasti recipe image — Antipasti Recipe Image © Thomas Sixt

Antipasto plate

For a colorful antipasto vegetable plate, you can prepare more vegetable antipasti and serve them together with an appetizer.

Video

2. Calories and Nutritional Facts Eggplant Vegetables

As usual, you can find the calculated nutritional values in the table below.

3. Prepare Eggplant Antipasti In the Oven

I like to prepare the classic of Italian cuisine in the oven.

The advantage is obvious:

There are no splashes of fat on the stove and no odors in the kitchen or apartment.

I usually cut the melanzani slices to a thickness of 0.5 cm and then place them on an oven rack.

To keep the oven clean, I put a baking sheet under the grid.

Then I turn on the grill at the highest level and preheat the oven.

I season the aubergine slices with salt, pepper and olive oil just before putting them in the oven.

I drizzle the olive oil sparingly to generously over the vegetable slices.

You could add dried thyme right away, I avoid garlic because it burns quickly.

When the slices are nicely browned on the upper side, I take the grid out of the oven and turn the vegetable slices over.

For the second time I season the vegetable slices and then put them back in the oven.

The whole magic takes about 5-7 minutes per side in my oven.

Sometimes I change the shelf height in the oven to give the slices the perfect finish.

Aubergines must be cooked until soft!
Preparing aubergines Cooking tip from Thomas Sixt

4. Eggplant Antipasti Cold Or Warm

You can serve the freshly grilled vegetable slices straight away and put them on the plate while they are still hot.

That would be a nice accompaniment to fried meat or steak.

If you choose this variant, you can add some diced garlic to the aubergine slices for the last few minutes and grill them briefly.

Alternatively, you can gently heat some sliced or diced garlic in a pan with a little olive oil and cook briefly.

I am particularly happy to recommend another variant with young garlic:

The young, green garlic is delicious when sliced finely and deep-fried until crispy.

You can prepare this, fry it, drain it, season it with salt and then decorate it directly on the aubergines.

When served cold, it is a typical antipasti vegetable. Simply place the slices in a suitable bowl or on large platters.

Then marinate with plenty of olive oil, add or leave out garlic, I leave that up to you. In any case, basil or thyme go well with it.

Young, green, fried garlic creates a taste kick that you will never forget.
Be sure to season the crispy garlic with salt after frying, then sprinkle on the grilled eggplant slices just before serving.
Garlic tip from chef Thomas Sixt

Young garlic fried fresh and crispy. — Young garlic, finely chopped and fried until crispy.

Young garlic ideal for asparagus risotto! — Young garlic is the first choice for the asparagus risotto.

5. Marinate the Eggplant Antipasti

Let’s deal with pickling the aubergines very quickly.

Pickling is mostly short-term for flavor and longer-term to ensure better shelf life.

For a shelf life of one to two days, I recommend that you put the prepared vegetable slices on a plate.

You can then drizzle the fried aubergines with a moderate amount of olive oil and cover with cling film.

The plate can then be conjured up quickly from the fridge and the vegetables are already nicely arranged.

Alternatively, you can also use an appropriate can with a lid or a plastic box.

For a longer storage of up to 14 days, put the prepared vegetable slices at least in a tin and keep them cold covered with oil.

Place the cooked vegetable slices in clean and disinfected jars and cover with oil.

No vegetables should stick out on top of the oil.

Put the lid on the jar, close it tightly and cook for 1.5 hours at 130°C in the oven on a baking tray with hot water.

The jars or the vegetables in them should then last for 3 months without refrigeration if stored in a cold place.

Here you will find the following photo impressions of the preparation of the glasses.

Ms. Sixt always insists on washing the glasses with vinegar essence.

After the hot rinsing of the glasses, they are ready, for example, to cook jam or pickle vegetables and preserve them.

Jars to fill with jam — The cleaned and disinfected jars, prepared for filling the home-made jam.

Rinse glasses with vinegar — Cleaning the glasses, rinse the glasses well with vinegar to keep them fresh. © Thomas Sixt food photographer

6. Eggplant Antipasti In Tomato Sauce

A popular addition to the grilled aubergines is a homemade tomato sauce.

You can baste the prepared vegetable slices with a little or more tomato sauce and serve them cold or warm.

The original Italian dish is called Caponata.

Caponata is a cold aubergine ragout with tomatoes, capers, raisins, pine nuts and basil and a delicious and popular cult recipe in Sicilian cuisine.

Recipe caponata for 4 people:

Ingredients:

Two pieces of dark, purple aubergines, a teaspoon of salt, 100 ml of olive oil, a small yellow onion or shallot, a tablespoon of brown cane sugar, 40 ml of red wine vinegar or balsamic dressing vinegar, 250 g of canned tomatoes, four stalks of celery with greens and leaves, 40 g Capers, 40 g raisins, 15 green Sicilian olives, 3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts, 1/2 bunch of basil.

Preparation:

Cut the aubergines into 1.5-2 cm cubes and mix with the salt in a bowl.

Leave the marinated aubergines to stand for a good half hour, then tap them off and fry them immediately in a pan with half the olive oil.

Add the diced onion towards the end of the cooking time and sauté briefly.

Sprinkle the aubergine with sugar and lightly caramelize.

Deglaze with the vinegar and add the crushed tomatoes and bring to the boil.

Add a few finely chopped celery stalks, reserving the green leaves for garnish.

Add the capers, raisins and olives and simmer gently for 10 minutes.

Allow the caponata to cool and leave to mature in the fridge overnight.

Season again the next day and serve decorated with pine nuts, basil and celery leaves.

What goes well with aubergines with tomato sauce?

You can serve it with stewed rabbit or add the vegetables as a side dish to the barbecue.

It tastes delicious with an Italian bratwurst or on white bread with pecorino or parmesan.

Complete an antipasti plate with these prepared vegetables.

A fried tuna steak, bream from the oven or smoked or pickled mackerel harmonize perfectly with it.

Burrata and mozzarella can be broken open, placed in the middle of the caponata and supplemented with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

The vegetables are easy to preserve at home if there are too many vegetables in the garden in summer or autumn.

You can prepare Caponata well and conjure it up for barbecues and for your picnic.
Tip from chef Thomas Sixt

Tomato pulp — Pulp Tomatoes are tomatoes with discernible pieces of fruit. © Thomas Sixt

7. Frequently Asked Questions About Eggplant Antipasti

I have put together the most important cooking questions answered below:

Prepare the eggplant antipasti in a pan or in the oven, which method does the chef recommend?

The preparation in the oven succeeds with less oil and the melanzani slices cook more evenly on the grill grate. Therefore, as a cook, I recommend oven preparation under the preheated grill. You can supplement and marinate with cold olive oil after cooling. Cold olive oil contains more vital substances than heated oil.

How does fry eggplant crispy in the pan?

To do this, cut the eggplant into slices, then season with salt and let sit for 20 minutes. Dab off the moisture with a paper towel, then turn in wheat flour, gluten-free flour or chickpea flour and fry in oil. I strongly recommend the chickpea flour version, it makes the eggplant more digestible and absorbs less fat.

What is typical about antipasti eggplant Italian?

The simple preparation, grilling the eggplant slices, seasoning with salt, pepper and olive oil, optional little garlic, herbs like thyme or basil and plenty of olive oil for marinating are typical for the well-known antipasti variant from Italy.

What is the advantage of dehydrating eggplants with salt?

Season the raw eggplant slices with salt and let them rest for a good 30 minutes. This will remove the moisture and bitter substances from the vegetables. Pat the eggplants dry before frying. Connoisseurs like the delicate bitter taste of eggplant and do not salt it.