Flavour explosion: stuffed eggplant.

I made the following recipe years ago and then filed it away in the archive, where it remained a vague memory, like a lost game of chess.

I found it again one hot day recently when I’d bought three large coming-into-season eggplants; and I made the dish and wondered why I'd eaten ten thousand boring meals in between.

In the intervening years the recipe's origin seemed to have moved south from Naples to Sicily and its flavour is Mt. Etna-sized. Rather than the more common, and tedious, mince-and-rice filling, this dish relies on the ability of the eggplant itself to deliver extraordinary flavour thanks to the ingredients it carries.

Stuffed eggplant with anchovies, capers and olives.

Halve and cut the flesh out of two of the eggplants, leaving four shells with about half an inch of pulp remaining. Peel the third eggplant.

Cut the pulp of all three into small cubes and place it into a colander, salting generously. Leave to drain for thirty minutes, then rinse and squeeze out excess fluid.

Brown the pulp in about a quarter cup of olive oil, then throw in two scored cloves of garlic, a can of diced tomatoes, half a cup of pitted and chopped black olives, a small tin of anchovies drained and chopped, and a small handful of capers. If that’s not enough flavour, add a scattering of dried oregano.

Place your eggplant shells in an oiled baking dish and fill them with the mixture. Top with a sludge of olive oil mixed with dried breadcrumbs, then bake in a moderate to hot oven for about 45 minutes.

Serve with polenta, a basic cheese-and-butter risotto or ribbons of home-made egg pasta.