1 big eggplant or two smallish ones
1 head garlic
1 T balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 400. Stab the eggplant a few times with a fork and
lay it in a baking dish. Peel the outer layers of skin from the garlic
head, and cut about 1/4" off the bottom--enough to expose the cloves.
Wrap the garlic in aluminum foil. Put eggplant and garlic in the oven
and leave them there for 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours. Remove and when cool
enough to handle, scrape all the eggplant out of the skin and put it in a
bowl, chopping it lightly with a table knife. Squeeze as much garlic out
of the roasted head as is necessary to ring your garlic chimes (I use the
whole thing). Add vinegar and salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Serve
as much as you need warm over hot cooked pasta. If you put the rest in
the fridge it will firm up and make a tasty spread for whole wheat toast or hearty wheat crackers. This of course lends itself to variations, based on whatever you have on hand: some chopped tomato, bell peppers of any color, basil,
mushrooms...
