Once in a while I like to prepare traditional socca as a base for a lunch one plates. It’s very quick to prepare and easy to serve with fresh vegetables. Since I’ve found huge eggplants at the farmers market I decided to make some basil (I have plenty in my herb garden) eggplant caviar and I made a big batch. I used very little olive oil in so that it can be eaten endlessly! I found it matches very well the socca and was a good dip. So I simply dresses the plates adding a few pan fried eggplant slices, some tomato and okra.

Eggplant caviar: 

For a big bowl. 

– 3 eggplants (not the small Japanese ones, the big ones! Otherwise you may make a small bowl!) 

– a bit of olive oil

– salt, pepper

– fresh basil leaves, or carvi seeds, or sesame seeds… 

Preheat the oven to 200. Set the eggplants on a cooking paper shit and put in the oven. Bake until it feels soft inside. Let them cool. Then peel them. Remove the extra water if any by just squeezing them.  Put all the peeled eggplants in the bowl of a blender, add salt and pepper, a bit of olive oil and blend to a smooth purée. Add the chopped basil, or the carvi seeds or the sesame seeds. Ready to eat, with bread, in a dish…

The recipe fir the socca is available here