Eggplant Balls

Polpette di Melanzane
Wally was not crazy about eating meat – this is one dish he did enjoy. I generally served it with pasta or rice, but sometimes I made polenta or couscous. If you enjoy eggplant, I would definitely recommend this dish. The ingredients work well together – I have used flavored oil instead of the ginger at times for variation. Any flavored oil would do, such as truffle, peperoncino, herbed, or spiced oil would be fine.
Ingredients for 2:
2 eggplants, sliced not too thinly
¼ lb of tofu, crumbled
¼ c cannellini, precooked
15 taggiasche olives, seeded (these are jarred olives from Liguria)
15 capers, desalinated
Zest from ½ lemon
4 anchovy fillets
Fine Italian breadcrumbs, plain
¼ c of oat flakes
Sea salt, to taste
Olive oil
Fresh ginger, as desired
A little Italian parsley
1 small garlic toe
Preparation:
Grill the eggplant slices on a pan grill, getting both sides browned. There is no need to salt the eggplant before grilling – the grilling process takes care of evaporating the liquid from the eggplant.
As soon as all eggplant slices are grilled, put them in a food processor along with the other ingredients – tofu, cannellini, olives, capers, anchovies, breadcrumbs, oat flakes, parsley, garlic, salt, lemon zest, and a shaving of two of fresh ginger. Mix carefully, making sure to create a firm but not too firm mixture (if too wet, add breadcrumbs or oats; if too dry, add water).
Form the mixture into meatball-sized orbs and bread them. Cook in oven or in frying pan with oil, turning them carefully to get them golden brown on all sides. They are delicious either cold or warm.
Buon appetito!