![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6313f243-fedb-493b-aaf8-55fb72572b35_2000x2000.jpeg)
[To view this entire newsletter, click on the headline at the top to open it in your browser.]
Welcome to Buona Domenica, a weekly newsletter of Italian home cooking and baking. I’m a journalist, cooking teacher, occasional tour guide, and author of eight cookbooks on Italian cuisine.
This week’s newsletter features a classic summer veg recipe for paid subscribers: Melanzane a Funghetto. Plus links to other favorite eggplant recipes for all subscribers.
Click here to browse through the newsletter archive. If you’re looking for a particular recipe, you’ll find all Buona Domenica recipes—160 and counting—indexed here, ready to download and print—a function for paid subscribers. Although many recipes are initially free when I publish them here, they do go behind a paywall after a few weeks.
If you are able to do so, please consider supporting my work by becoming a paid subscriber. Grazie.
On to the newsletter…
Sometimes when I’m traveling and don’t have time to take copious notes, I jot down highlights and lowlights, one of each from each place I visit. This task helps me to distill various on-the-road experiences so that I don’t forget or confuse them. Surprisingly, it also helps me to better remember the stuff in between those high and low bookends, points of references for when I do have time to flesh out my notes.
I thought you might enjoy seeing the list of highlights from my most recent swing through southern Italy. One yielded this week’s recipe, a classic Neapolitan dish called melanzane a funghetto—eggplant in the style of mushrooms, meaning cooked in olive oil with garlic and basil, and, in this version, tomatoes.
It’s an excellent dish with which to kick off eggplant season, and an overall good summer recipe, as it can be made in advance and served warm or at room temperature. The recipe, newly tested, is available to paid subscribers. I’ve also got links to other favorite eggplant recipes for all my subscribers.
P.S. I left out the lowlights because they tended to be me carping about mass tourism, monstrous cruise ships docked in ports, and the Disneyfication of UNESCO Heritage Sites. What else is new…
SALERNO
Salerno served as my base for the first leg of my trip. Unfortunately, the hotel I booked myself into was a ways away from the city’s centro storico, so I never actually got to see any of Salerno’s treasures, such as its Duomo. The hotel was on the lungomare (along the water), and clearly meant for families on a seaside vacation—my room had a queen-size bed plus two twins. The room was slightly worn, but it was clean and I fell a little bit in love with the retro turquoise tiles.
Highlight: Ristorante Mea Culpa
Located on a side street near my hotel and away from the downtown fray, this small but airy spot serves a mix of dishes from land and sea. I went here for the spaghetti alle vongole but ended up falling for their melanzane a funghetto, which I ordered as a side. The generous portion was served in a bowl and although I was full from the pasta, I couldn’t resist dipping my fork into the silky, tomato- and oil-slicked cubes of eggplant for “just one more” taste. My copycat version was the first thing I cooked when I got home to Penne.
AMALFI
I had not been to Amalfi since a 1980s day trip with my Neapolitan friends. Turns out staying away was mostly a good choice.
Highlight: Lunch with Paola
My friend and fellow cookbook author Paola Bacchia (@italyonmymind on Instagram) was staying in Praiano at the same time I was in Salerno. We made a date to meet for lunch in Amalfi, accessible to both of us. For although we have been friends for about a decade now, we had never actually met in person until last week. We shared pastries at Pasticceria Pansa, window shopped, and found a quiet oasis of a restaurant tucked up and away from the crowds. To see us together, you would never have known we had not met before.
Pro tip: The higher up you are willing to climb in these terraced seaside villages, such as those along the Amalfi Coast, or even the Cinque Terre, in Liguria, the quieter and less crowded it gets.
NAPLES
Back in the 1980s, my sister and I would visit our friends in Naples. We would tool around the chaotic streets with them and they would take us to all their favorite places. I’m (mostly) happy to see Naples thriving as a food-lover destination—in those days, most travelers actively avoided it.
Highlight: Le Sette Opere di Misericordia
During my brief (half-day) visit to the city, I turned down a random street and found myself in front of the church of Pio Monte della Misericordia, a charity brotherhood formed in 1601. The charity commissioned the painter Caravaggio to depict the seven acts of mercy, and in 1607 he turned out this masterpiece of chiaroscuro. It cost €10 to enter the church and it was money well spent. During the time I was there, only two other people came in to view the painting.
MATERA
Even while standing amidst the chalky limestone settlements of Matera’s ancient underground city, it is almost impossible to fathom this man-made marvel known as “i sassi” (the stones). Matera is now a UNESCO Heritage Site and a growing tourist attraction. The area’s first inhabitants were prehistoric cave dwellers, and Matera has been continuously populated in some form since then. By the 20th century, an entire new city had grown up around the “sassi”—the caves on the hillsides and the squareish houses in the canyons—as more and more people moved out. In the 1950s, the “sassi” were declared unfit for living, and the last remaining inhabitants, who existed in extreme poverty, were relocated to the modern city. The “sassi” now house a mix of museums, boutique hotels, restaurants, and shops. For more on Matera, I recommend this episode of the Untold Italy podcast.
Highlight: La Serenata
On my second night in Matera, I had dinner in the courtyard of a small restaurant located in the “sassi” district. As I was slicing into my “pezzenti,” (local spicy sausage), I heard music well up in the near distance—accordion, tambourine, voices singing folk tunes. I couldn’t see who was making the music but it seemed to be a lively group. I learned from my waitress that it was a “serenata,” a ritual in which a young man and his friends serenade his bride-to-be. After I left the restaurant, I walked around the corner and caught the tail end of the performance. What a delight to witness this enduring, joyful ritual.
LECCE
This was my second visit to Lecce, and it is a city I will gladly visit again and again. With its rich Baroque architecture and soft yellow limestone, walking around Lecce is like being inside a beautifully iced cake that has been sitting around for awhile. It might be a little wilted but you still want to take a big bite.
Highlight: Breakfast at Bar Cotognata Leccese
One morning I ventured outside the centro storico (always a good idea to get a true sense of a city) and walked to Bar Cotognata Leccese for breakfast. Although it has only been around since 1992, this coffee bar and pastry shop has a welcome traditional feel. They are famous for their homemade quince paste (cotognata), which they sell in big slabs. But they also sell a variety of southern pastries, and their pasticciotti—golden-brown oval shaped pastries filled with pastry cream—are worth seeking out. I had one, still warm from the oven, washed down with a caffè leccese, an iced espresso spiked with almond syrup.
Pro tip: If you go to Lecce, I recommend making the 20-minute trip to the nearby town of Galatina, where, in the small centro storico, you’ll find Pasticceria Andrea Ascalone. This jewel of a pastry shop has been in business since 1740—it is said to be Italy’s oldest pasticceria—and it has been turning out the most glorious, burnished pasticiotti since 1745. Here’s a short reel I posted on Instagram of the pasticciotti I bought at Ascalone:
And while you’re there, be sure to walk down to the Basilica di Santa Caterina d’Alessandria. The Romanesque and Gothic dates to the 1400s and is filled with bright-hued frescoes depicting angels with musical instruments.
RECIPE: Melanzane a Funghetto
This is a classic side dish from Campania, the region the includes Naples. Cubes of eggplant are fried in oil and then seasoned with garlic and herbs and sometimes tomato sauce. The name of the dish translates to “eggplants in the style of mushrooms,” which is to say prepared in this manner, the eggplant, in texture and appearance, comes to resemble mushrooms. Because it’s such a simple dish, the ingredients have to be really good: firm eggplants, best-quality canned tomatoes, and oil that tastes fresh, not rancid (obviously!).
There are lots of variations for melanzane a funghetto: some cooks fry the eggplant cubes in olive oil, others in sunflower or another vegetable oil. Some leave the eggplant “in bianco,” meaning no tomato is added. I like mine coated in a judicious amount of sauce. Parsley or basil? Your choice, or—why not—a little of each.
By the way, this is one of those dishes that improves from an overnight rest. I recommend making it the day before you plan to serve it. You can reheat it or serve it at room temperature; it’s even good cold.
Also, melanzane a funghetto doubles nicely as a pasta sauce; just toss with hot cooked pasta—mezze maniche or rigatoni are good choices—adding a splash of pasta water and a glug of olive oil if necessary to loosen the sauce. Optional: a sprinkle of Parmigiano or Pecorino cheese.
Click on the button below for the full, printable recipe—available to paid subscribers.
READERS AND FELLOW COOKS: What’s your favorite way to prepare eggplant?
More eggplant recipes:
Eggplant and Rice Timballo (recipe temporarily unlocked from the archives)
Roasted Eggplant Halves with Gremolata (recipe temporarily unlocked from the archives)
Thanks, as always, for reading, subscribing, and sharing.
Alla prossima,
Domenica
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and recommendations, Domenica. Italy's capacity to delight and be delicious is large!
Yay for melanzane al funghetto, intramontabile!