aubergine & ricotta tart.

The time has changed. Now it is pitch black by 6 o'clock. It's moderately depressing.

I went back home today to have my dad help me set up a retirement account, by tickets to go see A Christmas Carol and deposit my paycheck. A massive load of laundry was done in the meantime and running a few errands with my mom when she got home from work. A typical day off for me. A guess not really keeping in contact with anyone from high school, going to 3 different colleges and moving often has led my days off to be for errands instead of hanging out with people. Even though I have lived in St Helena for over a year now, I still feel like I don't know anyone here. Besides the people at work.
I've always been a bit of a lone wolf.
Work for me.
Sometimes.

After I spent one day photographing my new baby cousin Kai, we ended the photoshoot in the garden of my Aunt and Uncle's house. The have a massive amount of things growing. I came away with a few tomatoes, some type of squash and a few little aubergines. The tomatoes were to go into a salad, the squash could be cut up and roasted, but I didn't know what to do with the aubergines. Besides a ratatouille, have I ever done anything with them? Probably and I'm just not remembering. But those suckers sat in my fridge until I knew I had to use them or toss em.

So after seeing what else was in my always empty fridge, I there was butter and ricotta. A tart it all became.

With many photos....

Aubergine and Ricotta Tart
1 9inch tart

For the dough I used a classic Pate Brisee dough
1 1/4 cup (156g) AP flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 stick (114g) butter, cold and cubed
a few tablespoons of ice water

Mix the dry ingredients together, then cut in the butter until you have small pea sized chunks. Then I add water by the tablespoon, mixing it, just until it holds together. Then wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour.
Roll out on a lightly floured surface, to just bigger than your pan. Fit into your pan and cut off any excess.

For the filling I just did about a cup of ricotta mixed with salt and pepper and herbs de provence. Then spread over the crust. Next time I would beat an egg into it. It baked off into a bit of a solid layer for me, so I think the egg would make it stay lighter.

Then I just sliced two small aubergines (eggplants) and fanned then on top of the ricotta. Drizzled it with a bit of olive oil and sprinkled with salt an pepper.

Baked in a 375 degree oven for about 1 - 1 1/2 hour. Ate once cooled.

Not the best thing I have ever made, but good enough to suffice for a meal.