Bir Tutam Tuz

An olive oil dish from summer feasts.

Ingredients:

• 5 eggplants
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 onions (finely chopped)
• 3-4 garlic cloves (optional; minced)
• 5 cubanelle peppers (finely chopped)
• 5 tomatoes (peeled; finely diced)
• a pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• half a bunch flat leave parsley (finely chopped)
• juice of a lemon
  

Instructions:

1. Wash the eggplants and slice the stem off the top of the eggplant. Peel the eggplants; leave stripes on the eggplant, with strips of skin between peeled strips. Soak the eggplants on cool salty water for half an hour to get rid of the bitter taste and to preserve their bright color while cooking.
2. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place the eggplants on an oven tray and brush them with 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Oven grill until eggplants are tender; about 40 minutes. Don’t forget to turn the eggplants occasionally. (If desired, instead of oven grilling, deep fry the eggplants with 2 cups of olive oil.)
3. Sautee onion, peppers, and garlic with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add tomatoes. Cook on medium heat until tomatoes absorbed most of the fluid and the sauce gets thicker. Add salt, black pepper, and the parsley and take the sauce of the heat.
4. Gently slit the eggplants in the middle and fill them with the sauce. Pour the remaining tomato sauce to the bottom of the oven tray. Drizzle the lemon juice over the eggplants. Cook at 400°F oven for about 15 minutes.