Expanding Horizons

       I had thought I might also blame Tom for my vegetable-eating issues, since he doesn’t like some of the vegetables I wouldn’t mind eating. For instance, I would gladly eat asparagus or zucchini, which he doesn’t want to touch. And I don’t want to cook things he won’t eat.
       The problem with trying to blame him is that he is willing to eat some of the vegetables I prefer to avoid – things like broccoli and those yucky lima beans.
       This means that we are left with only a few traditional “vegetables” that we may not be wild about, but at least will eat – lettuce, green beans, carrots, bell peppers, potatoes and, and…well, maybe that’s it.
       This, obviously, can get a bit repetitive. So yesterday, I decided to try to expand our repertoire a bit.
       I found a Mario Batali recipe for eggplant caponata that I decided to try. (This recipe is available in his cookbook, Molto Italiano, and on the Food Network web site.) I have never tried one of Chef Batali's recipes before, and have actually had a bit of a grudge against him ever since we saw him behaving badly while he was dining at Chef Ming Tsai’s wonderful restaurant (Blue Ginger) near Boston several years ago. For more about Mario's "larger-than-life" personality and proclivities, check out the book, Heat, by Bill Buford.
       Even worse, I suspected that Tom might not like eggplant (since it is similar in texture to zucchini) and I wasn’t sure I’d be wild about it either. I don’t think I’d ever eaten more than a bite or two of eggplant in my whole life, and now I had two fairly big purple blobs sitting on my counter, waiting to be cooked.
       But I overcame these objections for the following reasons. First, Batali does seem to be an incredible cook. We finally went to one of his restaurants (Lupa) in New York recently, and were pretty wowed – despite the fact that we saw him again that night, and he appeared to be as rude and self-absorbed as before.
       Secondly, caponata was one of the dishes I saw on the antipasto bar at Fiorello’s and I was eager to try to duplicate some of those dishes. And thirdly, the recipe also had ingredients like cinnamon, cocoa, hot peppers and currants – all of which we enjoy.

To be continued...