aubergine - eggplant recipes

.aubergines - eggplants

All dialectal names used for aubergines (eggplants) contain the term “melanzane” (aubergine - eggplant) which comes from the Arab term “badingian” to which is added “mela” (apple) and that is finally “melanzana”.
From India the aubergine (eggplant) was brought to Sicily and then to Europe at the end of the 14th century (1380) by Arabs. But it was timidly welcomed. Only at the end of the 1800 it will appear in European cooking. We can find one reason for this in its initial bitter taste (it was even defined “poisonous food” or “noxious for health”); at the same time it was believed that its name “malum-insanum” meant “apple which leads to madness”: this is what it would have happened if you had eaten it. Thanks to Padri Carmelitani aubergines (eggplants) spread in our country.
In the island it’s very used now; no other vegetable can be prepared in so many ways as aubergine (eggplant). The recipes that you’ll find constitute just a selection among more than 80 different procedures that I found.