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eggplants salt extra-bittersweet chocolate cocoa powder ground cloves grindings of pepper good red wine pistachios blanched almonds flour extra-virgin olive oil egg egg white sugar confectioners sugar
Viewed: 32 - Published at: 3 years agoIngredients
- 3 small or 2 medium globe-shaped eggplants, smooth, tight, and shiny-skinned
- Coarse sea salt for the water
- 7 ounces extra-bittersweet chocolate, preferably Lindt or Valrhona 70% cacao
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- A few grindings of pepper
- 1/3 cup good red wine
- 5 ounces shelled pistachios, lightly pan-roasted
- 5 ounces blanched almonds, lightly pan-roasted
- Flour
- 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg white
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- Confectioners sugar
Method
- Slice the unpeeled eggplant very thin into slices not more than 1/8 inch in thickness and nearly transparent, piling them into a large bowl of cold, sea-salted water.
- Permit the eggplant slices to rest in their bath for 1 hour.
- In a small, heavy saucepan over a low flame, stir the chocolate with the cocoa, the cloves, the pepper, and the wine, only until the chocolate has softened and warmed.
- Continue to stir off the flame until the mixture is smooth.
- Cover the pan and set it aside.
- Hand-chop or pulse the pan-roasted pistachios and almonds in a food processor to a fairly small mince.
- Set the nuts aside.
- Drain the eggplant, squeezing the slices a few at a time.
- Shake the squeezed, now wrinkled-beyond-repair, slices in a paper bag with a bit of flour, coating them lightly.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- In a large saute pan over a lively flame, warm the olive oil and begin quickly sauteing the eggplant, crisping it a bit, then removing it to rest on absorbent paper towels.
- Repeat the process until all the eggplant slices are golden and crisped.
- Very lightly oil a 10-inch springform pan and place a generous layer of the eggplant on its base.
- Drizzle the eggplant with a bit of the slightly rewarmed chocolate, sprinkle over some of the pistachio/almond mixture, and repeat the process until all the components are in place, ending with a thin layer of eggplant.
- Beat the egg, the egg white, and the sugar together to a froth in a pitcher or a measuring cup with a spout, drizzling it carefully over and down into the cracks and crevices between the layers of the eggplant.
- Bake the torta for 18 minutes, removing it from the oven to cool for 1/2 hour before unmolding.
- Just before presentation, dust the torta with confectioners sugar.
- It is lovely to eat at room temperature, even better thoroughly cooled.
- Do not, however, refrigerate it.
- Obviously, one would wish to keep the tortas principal component a secret, waiting to see who among them will recognize it in its sweet masquerade.
