The food of Calabria and Calabrese cooking is not complicated. Being of Calabrese decent myself, I would describe this food as pure and simplistic cuisine. Suffice to say I would not consider myself as a complex or a convoluted Calabrese even though we are sometimes known to have a “testa dura” or “hard head”. Calabrese cooking encompasses various fresh vegetables with an assortment of fresh and or dried pastas that are complimented with olive oil. Calabrese cooking also includes distinctive and aromatic ingredients of the Calabria region of southern Italy that would result in a diet that is similar to what we have all heard hailed as the “Mediterranean” diet.

I have an extreme dislike for the word “diet.” People usually associate the word diet to weight loss, however, I view the word diet as the intake of a specific selection of food to improve a person’s overall health and well being. Canadians and Americans alike have been embracing this new craze called the “Mediterranean” diet. Don’t get me wrong, I am not writing this article to promote my version of the “Mediterranean” diet. Let’s see, it could be called the “RRSP” diet. Yes, I know its still tax season but “RRSP” could refer to the Rizzuti’s Reducing Sliming Plan. That, however is a topic for another aticle!

The Mediterranean diet incorporates the fundamentals of healthy eating which consist of a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, bread and grains along with the importance of eating of healthy fat like olive oil. The similarities between traditional Calabrese style of cooking and the cooking styles of countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea have a combination of alike –shared climate, geology and cultural connections related to foods we consume. Of course, this is not news to Italians as we basically have been cooking this way for centuries.

All my avid readers would know that many of my previous recipes have incorporated the components vegetables, pasta, olive oil and tomatoes. Two additional advantages and key elements of the Mediterranean diet are the consumption of the healthy fat olive oil and the drinking of red wine. This is of course should be checked with your doctor for your own personal being and always done in moderation. Before I became Maria Rizzuti, my maiden name was Gallo. The name “Gallo” is synonymous with those two very elements, Gallo Olive Oil and Gallo Wine. The famous brothers Ernest and Julio Gallo who founded their winery back in 1933 were not distant relatives of ours, but my dad certainly made great tasting wine every year. I am sure you have already guessed as to which olive oil was purchased every week at the grocery store by my parents. Yes, you get two points if guessed Gallo Olive Oil. Olive oil helps to lower blood cholesterol levels and is rich in mono-unsaturated fats and contains no cholesterol.

Today’s recipe incorporates pasta, olive oil and with the star attraction being the vegetable eggplant. The word “eggplant” according to “Dictionary.com” is defined as, “A plant native to south eastern Asia, allied to the tomato, and bearing a large, smooth, edible fruit, shaped somewhat like an egg.” There is obviously no “egg” in eggplant but rather the “egg” part of the word comes from the shape of the vegetable. The Italian word for eggplant which is “mellazane” comes from the Latin name for the plant which is “melongena.” It is a staple in the cuisines of the Mediterranean but Calabrians have also adopted the eggplant into their cooking.

Calabrians eat eggplant in a number of different ways: sautéed in olive oil with garlic and parsley, coated in egg and breadcrumbs and fried for Eggplant Parmesan. When I think about the odd looking vegetable called eggplant, two things come to my mind, home made “Mellanzane Giardinera” and “Stuffed Eggplant with Meat.” I grew up eating these two dishes.

The French call eggplant Aubergine and is best known for the recipe Ratatouille which is a stewed vegetable dish of eggplant, tomatoes, onions, zucchini and bell peppers and herbs like herbes de Provence.The Greeks use eggplant and meat to make their traditional Moussaka as in the Middle Eastern dish Baba Ghanoush which is an eggplant dip that is eaten with pita bread.

Eggplant has been described as the “King of Vegetables.” Owing to its versatile nature, eggplant can be braised, stewed, stuffed, baked, grilled, fried and pickled in olive oil as in the “Mellanzane Giardinera.” All of you Italians girls out there who were roped into helping their parents in the making of many of these jars of marinated eggplant in olive oil with fresh mint and hot chili peppers every end of summer. Our parents would pull out a jar or two when we would get the aunts and uncles visit on a Sunday and serve it with fresh bread and prosciutto.

Whether it’s the Calabrese cooking, Mediterranean diet or the RRSP diet, which ever option you choose, assume and accept a new attitude to a new found way of eating. Give my Pasta and Eggplant alla Rizzuti a try. Buon appetito!