Aubergine

Acid dissolves the bitterness, aubergine soaks up the sauce.

Charred flesh and burnt skin need fat with its own bitterness to match.

Collapsed flesh drinks the rendered fat and gives back smoke.

Spongy flesh drinks the paste; the bitterness stops it turning sweet.

Fried flesh soaks up fat and this is the only thing sharp enough to cut it.

Miso caramelises under the grill while the flesh collapses to custard.

Burn the skin off over flame; the flesh takes smoke like a sponge.

Oil-soaked flesh needs sharp seeds scattered late; cooked in, they just disappear.

It drinks oil like it is owed. Salt it first or it drinks twice as much.

Alliaceous sulfur is the counterweight to the smoke.

Green top note over a flavour that sits entirely in the low end.

Sponge on sponge: the cheese returns the fat the vegetable drank.

Lactic acid and fat, doing the job of both dressing and cooling.

Spongy flesh absorbs spiced oil completely; nothing sits on the surface.

Spongy aubergine soaks up curry; basil goes on top, uncooked.

Oil-soaked aubergine needs a bitter dried herb, not a fresh green one.

Spongy flesh absorbs the spiced oil; the clove note survives the roasting.

Charred flesh and sun-dried chilli, both smoky, neither adding real burn.

The vegetable is a fat sponge; the seed puts a texture back on the surface.

Deep-fried flesh is a sponge for chilli oil and needs the salt to hold.

Fried flesh is sweet and oily. Capers are the sour half of caponata.

Fried flesh is oily and sweet, which is what chilli oil was aimed at.

Two charred vegetables from one fire. Escalivada logic, then pounded down.

Sponge flesh takes a thick sweet sauce that slides off anything firmer.

Deep-fry, then dress. A blank fat lets the smoke stay the loudest note.

Whole in the embers until it collapses. The skin becomes the seasoning.

Doubles the smoke when you have no live fire to hand.

Steamed aubergine is neutral and takes fermented chilli whole.

Salt-cured fish supplies the savour the vegetable only hints at.

Fried aubergine plus vinegar plus mint: the Sicilian escape hatch.

Charred flesh goes sweet and smoky; the acid stops it being one note.

Spongy flesh drinks spiced oil whole; nothing sits on the surface at all.

The vegetable soaks oil and gives nothing back. The nut is the texture that saves it.

Charred flesh is smoky and sweet, which is precisely what the sauce lacks.

Alcohol carries sugar into a sponge faster than any syrup could manage.

Fry it dark, then drizzle. The bitterness in the skin is what makes it work.

Amalfi does it with sugar and cocoa; the bitterness matches exactly.

Bark in the mince and the spongy flesh stops tasting bitter.

Shared roast pyrazines. Grind it into the rub before the grill.