Recipe: Eggplant Tapenade

At Frey Vineyards in Northern California, we love savoring the last of warm weather flavors for as long as we can. We still have tomatoes ripening on the vine and Japanese eggplants at our local farmers’ market, so our Frey Wine Club director Lisa Batson concocted this recipe for eggplant tapenade to highlight piquant Mediterranean flavors before the first freeze.

Eggplant Tapenade

Ingredients*

2 medium eggplants, unpeeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

4 Tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, peeled and thinly chopped

2 cups chopped tomatoes

½ cup red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp capers

8 pitted green olives, chopped

8 pitted black olives, chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper

*We try to use organic ingredients whenever possible

Preparation

1. Salt the eggplant cubes and let stand for 20 minutes.

2. Rinse with cold water and pat dry. (This process makes the eggplant more tender and less bitter.)

3. Warm olive oil over medium heat. Sauté onion until translucent. Add the eggplant and brown until lightly crisp, then remove from the pan.

4. Add the tomatoes and vinegar to the pan and cook for a few more minutes over medium heat.

5. Add the capers and olives, then season with salt and pepper to taste.

6. Toss with the eggplant and onion and serve with toasted baguette or crackers.

The zesty flavors in this chunky relish are the perfect complement to the robust aromas and hearty tannins of our Biodynamic Field Blend. We crafted this wine in the style of rustic Old World blends, where different varietals of grapes intermingled in the vineyard for enriched vitality, and fruit was fermented together for a cohesive marriage of taste and texture. Although our modern winemaking techniques foster more control with site-specific vineyard locations and different harvest times for each varietal, we still love blending our Field Blend with a nod to a more antiquated style of bottling the best of what nature produces.

Bon appétit!