RECIPE OF THE WEEK
Vegetarian Eggplant and Lentil Casserole
Serves 4.
1 large eggplant
Salt
Olive oil, for coating casserole dish
1 can lentils, or 1½ cups cooked lentils (if using cooked lentils, add carrots and celery for extra flavor)
1 zucchini
4 Roma tomatoes
1-2 leeks
¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Fresh basil
Fresh parsley
Pepper
3 fresh minced garlic cloves
½ cup olive oil
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Slice eggplant, and lightly salt, then set aside.
Lightly coat bottom of casserole dish with olive oil, and add lentils.
Slice zucchini, tomatoes and leeks.
Pat eggplant dry, and layer with other vegetables. Add Parmesan cheese on top. Continue layering vegetables until all are used.
Mix basil, parsley, salt, pepper and garlic together in the olive oil, and then drizzle the mixture over the layers. Cover with a final sprinkling of cheese.
Cook for 1 hour until vegetables are soft. Let cool and then stir together.
This can be used as a main course with bread or as a dip, and it reheats well.
NOTE: This cooks best at 295 degrees for 1½ hours if you have the time.
Cookbook correction
The Roasted Turkey Salad in the Culinary Delights cookbook, included in today’s Telegraph, calls for ½ cup of mayonnaise, not ¼ cup as stated in the recipe.
By SALLY BASHALANY Correspondent
Webster’s II New Riverside Dictionary defines the word “fresh” as “new, different, invigorating, and having just arrived.” And that’s just what this month’s Culinary Delights will bring to the table – new faces and invigorating ideas.
Katherine Costa’s recipe is not only new to her, it’s an original, borne out of frustration over a plenitude of eggplant harvested from her garden this summer.
“I had lentils and a lot of eggplant and was trying to figure out how to use it,” said the Hollis resident.
So she googled “lentils and eggplant casserole” and came up with several recipes. Costa, who rarely follows a recipe, took the best from each and created Vegetarian Eggplant and Lentil Casserole.
“I looked at what they used and what I had on hand,” she said.
The casserole can be served as an entree or as a dip. Costa even packed the casserole into a pita pocket and brought it to work for lunch the next day.
“I was looking for something I could bring in for lunch and could be reheated the next day” for dinner, she added.
Often, Costa is the only one in her family to dine on vegetarian dishes.
“It’s a meat and potatoes house,” she said of her family’s dietary preferences.
“I eat a little differently than the rest of my family, although they’re getting more used to what I eat,” said Costa, who regularly offers her dishes to her husband and two teenagers.
Her daughter, Kayley, 15, a freshman at Hollis/Brookline High School, is a little more open to trying new foods, said Costa.
Costa describes herself as a “semi-vegetarian (who) tries to eat a few vegetarian meals each week.” Many of her meals originated with fresh produce from her garden this summer, including basil, leeks, celery, kale, Swiss chard, carrots and beets; she even had luck with harvesting some tomatoes that survived the wet weather. Costa also rented a small space at the Beaver Brook community garden. What she doesn’t grow in her gardens, she supplements with produce from local farm stands.
Costa’s cooking style was influenced by her Italian grandmother. “I tend to use garlic and olive oil,” she said of the ingredients often found in her dishes.
While she did some cooking when still living at home, Costa’s culinary experimentation evolved when she and her young family lived in Portland, Ore., for eight years.
“Portland is a very foodie place,” Costa said.
If she does need to revert to a cookbook, Costa will pull her Moosewood cookbook down from the shelf.
“I might look at that and put in my own variations,” she said. Other times she will see what is available on food.com.
A reading professor and program coordinator of freshman studies at Nashua Community College, Costa is married to Michael, who works in software market ing. In addition to Kayley, the couple has a son, Charles, 18, a senior at Hollis/Brookline.
Over the years, both children have helped out in the kitchen. And maybe because he’s on the brink of adulthood, Charles is “very interested in family traditions, family recipes,” said Costa.
It’s a safe bet some of his mother’s creative recipes will wind up in the family recipe collection.
