I really sort of love having visitors over for One Local Summer meals because they’ll bring new and fun ideas to the One Local Table. There were a TON of beautiful eggplants at the market this week, so I grabbed two thinking, hmm, well I’ll find something to do with them. Talking about it with my sister-in-law who was visiting, we ended up with Eggplant Parmigiana using local ingredients. We didn’t have mozzarella, but I had plenty of blue cheese on hand, so it was a little different, but the flavor was incredible! And, unintentionally, we ended up with a vegetarian dinner. While the spaghetti squash was roasting in the oven, we prepped the eggplant by slicing thick slices then breading them with flour and an egg/yogurt mixture. We double dipped a few of them (egg then flour, repeat) and those seemed to come out better. They got a quick pan fry in the cast iron pan, then were set on a wire rack in the oven to finish baking for about 15 minutes. I found some sauce from summers past in the freezer, so we heated that up on the stove to top the spaghetti squash once it was done. On the side, a small bowl of tomatoes with oil, vinegar, and a sprinkle of salt finished off the meal along with a glass of wine. Really a great dinner, and we even used the leftover eggplant on sandwiches the next day!
A quick note on the flour.. it’s not ENTIRELY local. I picked this up at the Phoenixville Farmer’s Market a year or two ago. From what I remember, the owner was visiting family in the area and brought along his flour from Minnesota to sell at our local market. In that sense, it travelled along with a person who was making a trip anyway, and wasn’t using up extra “food miles” just to get to my doorstep, so while it’s not local, I’m going to allow it since it still follows in the One Local Summer ideals of a lower food carbon footprint and not using excess food miles to transport food from across the country when I can find it basically in my backyard. I do occasionally make exceptions for things like this that come home with us on our travels. The Sunrise Flour Mill also uses varieties of wheat that are heritage wheat varities and more along the lines of what one might have eaten 100 years ago, so it’s pretty unique and will be fun to work with!
Ingredients:
Eggplant – North Star Orchard
Tomato Sauce – My Garden
Spaghetti Squash – Jack’s Farm
Flour – Sunrise Flour Mill
Eggs – Deep Roots Valley Farm
Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow
Tomatoes – My Garden and Jack’s Farm
Non Local – Wine, vinegar, oil, salt.
