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These marinated eggplants fall into one of my favourite categories of things to cook: easy, quick pickles and preserves that you can make and keep on hand. They make all sorts of things better: pastas, salads, sandwiches. This is a category of little cooking projects that you make and then you thank yourself later for having made. I think of pickled cabbage, marinated feta or goat cheese, garlic confit, as being in this category. If you have these things on hand, you can almost always throw together a meal that you’ll be pleased with, just by adding in something from the pantry and any vegetables from the crisper.

I sometimes buy marinated eggplants in little jars, which are lovely, but it’s a quick, fun project to do yourself, and quite satisfying. They make an excellent sandwich, on some crusty baguette with a bit of spicy salami, arugula and some very sharp cheese, or chopped in a pasta with tomatoes and olives - the eggplant slightly melts into a really lovely sauce. Or in a salad (one suggestion coming up very soon in my next post!). They are extremely versatile

marinated eggplant

1 large eggplant, sliced
olive oil
red wine vinegar
chili flakes

In a grill pan over high heat, grill eggplant slices in a little oil. After a couple minutes (when they have really nice, dark grill marks on them) flip them over and cook a couple more minutes. Work in batches, so only a single layer of eggplant slices is in the pan at a time.

When all the slices are grilled, pack into a jar or glass container, sprinkling with chili flakes to taste. Fill the jar halfway with vinegar and the remainder with oil. They will be great after an hour or two, and even better the next day. They will keep for ages in the fridge as long as the eggplants are submerged.

Note: if you want, turn the jar in the fridge occasionally, so that the oil and vinegar are in contact with the other half of the eggplants, otherwise some are more oily and some are more vinegary.