A Nod to Ratatouille - Roasted Eggplant Soup

This is a soup born of an excess of eggplant, memories of something similar made a few years ago, and a search through the fridge! Makes 6, 1 cup servings. It's an intense, deep flavored soup so small portions are ideal. The color comes from the charred onion and tomato and the red pepper. I made it without the red pepper and quite honestly, it was a pretty insipid gray and not appealing to the eye.

Roasted Eggplant Soup

• Approximately 1 llb of small, fresh eggplants
• 1 ripe red pepper
• 1/2 large, sweet onion
• 1 large ripe tomato
• 2 fat cloves garlic
• 4 cups of chicken stock (you can go vegetarian on this and use vegetable stock)
• 2 oz Chevre goat cheese
• ~ 1/4 Cup heavy cream
• Sprigs of oregano and marjoram (you can substitute fresh lemon thyme)
• 2 Tbs. of "best" balsamic vinegar. Make sure you use a full-bodied rich balsamic. In one version I used one infused with black currants - yummy!
  
• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• coarse black pepper

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 400F
2. Prick eggplant (young, fresh ones will NOT need salting and draining). Old big ones might be too tough for this recipe.
3. Quarter tomato
4. Halve red pepper
5. quarter the half onion

Line a baking sheet with foil - pop all the veggies onto it - drizzle with the olive oil, salt and pepper, toss to coat. Roast 40 minutes or until eggplant is soft and the other veggies are charred.

Have a heavy bottom soup pan ready

• When roasted. Put the pepper into a paper bag for a few minutes to sweat and then peel it and toss it in the pan along with the onion and tomato.
  
• Squeeze the roasted garlic from the husk directly into the pan.
• Carefully scrape the eggplant "meat" into the pan. Discard the skins.
• Add the stock, herb sprigs and a good grating of black pepper to the pan. Simmer 40 minutes. At this stage you can let the soup sit in the fridge overnight. I made this twice. The version I let sit overnight developed a deeper flavor.
  
• Remove herb sprigs.
  
• Use an immersion blender or regular blender to puree the soup until smooth. You can set aside now or reheat slowly and serve. When ready to serve, check seasoning. It might need a little salt. Stir in the vinegar.

To Serve

Drizzle each serving with cream, sprinkle with crumbled goat cheese. I served it with an arugula salad topped with flakes of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and oven toasted French bread. Since I have two batches I intend serving it again tomorrow night when friends are over for dinner before roasted rack of lamb.