Melanzane al Cioccolato

Fried aubergine layered with chocolate sauce and served as a pudding.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (milk).

Ingredients

• 3 aubergines, sliced 1 cm thick
• 200 g dark chocolate, 70 per cent
• 300 ml milk
• 80 g caster sugar
• 60 g candied orange peel, chopped
• 8 amaretti biscuits, crushed
• 40 g flaked almonds
• 1 litre sunflower oil, for frying, which is poured off
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

1. SALT THE AUBERGINE SLICES AND LEAVE THEM 1 HOUR, then rinse them and dry them thoroughly. This is a pudding and the aubergine must not taste of salt or be bitter — an hour and a proper rinse, not the usual twenty minutes.
2. Fry the slices in the oil until deep gold on both sides, and drain them on a rack.
3. Melt the chocolate into the milk with the sugar over a low heat to a pouring sauce.
4. Layer in a dish: aubergine, chocolate sauce, candied peel, crushed amaretti, and repeat, finishing with sauce.
5. YES, IT IS A DESSERT, and it works because the fried slices behave like a soft sponge once the sauce has soaked into them — closer to a trifle than to a vegetable bake.
6. Scatter the almonds and bake at 170C for 20 minutes.
7. Cool to room temperature before serving — hot, the chocolate is thin and the aubergine still reads as a vegetable. Pour the frying oil off once cooled.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes