If you haven’t heard of Yotam Ottolenghi, chances are you haven’t looked at a cookbook section or been on Instagram in the past 16 years. The Israeli-born chef has built an empire around plant-based cooking, with nine restaurants in London, multiple TV specials, 12 cookbooks, and numerous awards. His colorful and inspiring dishes have helped him sell hundreds of thousands of cookbooks at a time when most people can get recipes online for free. Additionally, his use of Middle Eastern ingredients like za’atar, black lime, pulvibe, tahini, and rose harissa have led many to seek them out, thus making them more available in the country. It’s no exaggeration to say that Ottolenghi has changed the way many of us cook.
And yet, everyone I know who owns an Ottolenghi cookbook also has at least one story about a recipe so complicated that it requires every pot in their kitchen, or where the ingredients are nearly impossible to find. The complexity of Ottolenghi’s recipes is so well-known that New Yorker The article featured a satirical compilation of the chef’s “easiest recipes ever”: a “simple salad” containing three types of leaves, edible flowers, 16-year-old Modena vinegar (preferably older), pink miso, white miso, garlic buds, and human tears.
I have four Ottolenghi cookbooks. Guardian And the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen (OTK, as it’s known to those in the know) has produced both easy wins and hard-fought recipes. The most recent recipe I tried, Eggplant Dumpling Parmigiana, turned out to be the latter. It’s featured in Ottolenghi’s 2022 cookbook. tasteIt’s a variation on the traditional Italian vegetarian “meatballs” that have been made in frugal Italian households for centuries when meat was scarce. The beginning of the recipe says it offers all the flavors of the traditional dish of breaded eggplant and red sauce, but in meatball form.
I love meatballs, and I love Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and eggplant. The eggplant thing had me hooked. I approached the recipe with the intention of making dinner with some time to spare. All meatballs require some effort, but vegetarian meatballs even more. What I didn’t expect was the 3.5 hours it took me to make this inefficient recipe, during which I would end up scribbling furiously in the margins of my cookbook just to vent my frustration. Yes, I ended up with vegetarian meatballs with a satisfyingly meaty, creamy filling and a passable red sauce, and my kitchen looked like a Category 5 hurricane had dropped into a ketchup factory.
There had to be an easier, more efficient way, so I got to work.
The first step in Ottolenghi’s recipe calls for making sourdough breadcrumbs, but doesn’t tell you how to make them, and then instructs you to toast them. I made crunchy breadcrumbs that have the exact same texture and nearly the same flavor as breadcrumbs, so when I started revising the recipe, one of the first things I did was to use breadcrumbs. That change alone meant one less pan (and food processor bowl) to wash, and 20 minutes less prep time.
Moving on to eggplant, Ottolenghi cuts four eggplants (he doesn’t specify type or size) into 1-inch cubes to make 12 cups, tosses them in ⅓ cup oil, and roasts them. Because there’s too much eggplant on one baking sheet, he has to add extra time and keep stirring until all the eggplant is cooked through, adding 20 minutes to his suggested 30. He then piles the hot eggplant cubes in the oil onto a cutting board and chops them up some more. What could go wrong?
After two bandages, I decided to make the process less dangerous, so my version uses 1⅓ pound of large eggplant. Peel the skin (more on this later), slice the eggplant into thick rounds, brush with a little olive oil, and bake for 5 minutes on each side. You’ll have evenly cooked eggplant in half the time. Then, instead of cutting the slices, mash them in a bowl with a potato masher. Easy, safe, and super effective.
The original recipe calls for adding 6 tablespoons of ricotta cheese to the shredded eggplant, which is a pain since ricotta cheese is sold in standard 15-ounce containers. Because ricotta cheese doesn’t have much flavor and adds a ton of moisture to an already moist mixture, I decided to omit the ricotta in my improved recipe. I haven’t noticed any difference in texture or flavor. Ottolenghi also calls for one egg and one egg yolk. Why? Would the whole thing go wrong if I added two egg whites? No, if you use a whole egg, everything works just fine. Bonus: there’s no leftover egg white roaming around in your fridge waiting to spill or go bad.
Ottolenghi’s recipe also calls for 3 crushed garlic cloves, flour, fresh parsley, and coarsely chopped fresh basil. The garlic is raw, so it’s still pretty spicy. Call me a heretic, but there is a time and place for garlic powder, which dissolves evenly into the meatballs and dip and doesn’t taste of raw garlic at all. As for the flour, I believe Ottolenghi added it to absorb the excess moisture from the ricotta, but it would have made the balls even stickier, and the ricotta-free version I tried later didn’t need the flour, so I was able to get away with not adding it.
The original recipe called for fresh basil, and I spent $3.79 on a little plastic bag of out-of-season basil, which gave the meatballs almost no flavor. So in a later revision, I used the basil only to garnish the finished dish as instructed, so you could taste more of its freshness. But I wanted the meatballs to have a more Italian/eggplant parmesan flavor, so I added some dry Italian seasoning. Bada bing! Great flavor that had been sitting in my spice drawer all this time, waiting.
Ottolenghi’s recipe calls for lightly oiling your hands to roll the eggplant mixture into golf-ball-sized balls. My struggle with the unusually sticky mixture resulted in 18 misshapen lumps the size of a baby’s fist; the eggplant skin, loosely mixed in, made the job even more difficult. The next step, pan-frying the meatballs, should have been easy, but they stuck to the Teflon-coated pan, went from raw to nearly black no matter how low the heat was, and sometimes crumbled with even the lightest pressure.
So in my version of the recipe, I let the eggplant and breadcrumb mixture rest for 15 minutes, long enough for the breadcrumbs to absorb the moisture and hold the ingredients together. I used a tablespoon cookie dough scoop to form balls, placed them on a baking sheet, and baked them in a hot oven with the convection fan on. They didn’t brown quite as much as the original eggplant meatballs (which might be a good thing), but they browned evenly and held together nicely. And I didn’t have to wash my hands five times while making them.
The book also has a recipe for making a homemade red sauce. Sounds easy, right? But it’s not. To follow the recipe, you start by sautéing the garlic for a minute over medium-high heat. My garlic nearly burned, giving the sauce a bitter taste, and I didn’t really like the added sugar. Then you add “blended” canned tomatoes (Ottolenghi doesn’t say how they are blended), a bit of tomato paste, inexplicably 3/4 teaspoon paprika (not detectable in the finished sauce), and 2 teaspoons fresh oregano (no substitute for dried oregano is given). After 8 minutes of vigorous simmering over medium-high heat, my stove was covered in red polka dots, and so was I.
Next, pour 1⅔ cup water into the reduced sauce. But why dilute a reduced sauce? Simply simmer it on low heat with the lid on, which will retain most of the moisture and mellow the flavor. Or do you know an even easier solution? Open a jar of delicious marinara sauce. I used Carbone’s bottled marinara sauce, which saved me over 30 minutes and the joy of scrubbing red sauce stains off my kitchen walls. It might be sacrilegious to say it, but the bottled sauce tasted a lot better than the homemade version.
The final step in Ottolenghi’s recipe calls for pouring the hot tomato sauce into a baking dish (yet another dish to wash!), adding the charred eggplant meatballs, and baking for 40 minutes. Since both the sauce and the eggplant meatballs are already hot, I think this step is to prevent the oven from feeling left out or getting red stains from the sauce. I adapted the recipe by slowly heating a bottle of marinara sauce on the stove in a saucepan (deep and splash-proof), adding the charred eggplant meatballs, and baking for 5 minutes. Very efficient.
Ottolenghi tears the seeded Kalamata tomatoes just before serving, and garnishes them with chopped basil. I omitted the olives, which add nothing and only compete with the meatballs for texture. I kept the basil garnish, but tore them rather than chopped them, which is easier on the tender leaves than using a knife, and leaves your hands smelling nice too. Kill two birds with one stone.
After four retests and relentless realism, I’ve arrived at a dish that’s very similar to the original, but much more accessible. I might just show it to a vegetarian friend the next time they come over for dinner. Or maybe I’ll buy Ottolenghi’s latest book. Simpleinstead. Looks like he got the memo.
Eggplant Parmesan “Meatballs” Recipe
Yotam Ottolenghi’s taste
Serves 4
material:
1 eggplant (1¼ to 1½ pounds)
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (divided)
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup (4 ounces) grated Parmesan, plus a little more for garnish
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Black pepper
1 large egg
1 bottle (24 ounces) of marinara sauce
¼ cup chopped basil for garnish
Pasta or soft polenta (optional)
Instructions:
step 1: Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Adjust oven rack so that it is 4 inches below the grill and preheat grill over high heat. Cut off and discard stems of eggplant. Peel skin lengthwise, leaving 4 evenly spaced strips of skin. Slice eggplant into 1-inch thick slices and arrange on a baking sheet. Brush both sides with 3 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Grill until slices are browned and tender when pressed with tongs, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Remove sheet pan from oven and reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees if your oven has a convection function. If you don’t, it’s fine.
Step 2: Place the cooked eggplant slices in a large bowl and set the baking sheet aside. Mash the eggplant with a potato masher or fork to form chunks. Add the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and several grinds of pepper and stir. Taste and add more salt and pepper, if needed. Add the eggs and stir. Refrigerate the mixture for 15 minutes for easier handling.
Step 3: Spray the aluminum foil-lined baking sheet with cooking spray again. Using a cookie dough scoop or soup spoon, roll 1 tablespoon of the eggplant mixture into balls (20 at a time) and arrange on the baking sheet as you work. Brush the tops of the balls with the remaining tablespoon of oil and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.
Step 4: Meanwhile, boil the pasta or prepare the polenta (if using). Heat the marinara sauce in a medium saucepan or microwave-safe serving bowl (covered to prevent splashing). To serve, add the eggplant balls to the sauce and swirl to coat in the sauce. Sprinkle with more Parmesan and basil. Serve with the pasta or polenta.
Ivy Manning She is an award-winning food writer based in Portland, Oregon, and the author of ten cookbooks. Tacos A to Z: A delicious guide to non-traditional tacosShe’s a regular recipe tester and editor for Eater, as well as restaurants and appliance brands.
Dina Avila Photographer based in Portland, Oregon.
