what's in the fridge? Constructing sauce

Everyone gets faced, sooner or later, with having to use up "what's in the fridge?" My friend Bobby says that when he grew up, they called it "icebox stew." He says it was usually disgusting. Other people will have different names for it, but you know what I mean. It was usually (in fact, almost always), Mom, who was faced with what to do with the leftovers, especially when it was, say Thursday, and there wasn't any money coming in until Friday night. Many people have memories of those cans of cream of mushroom soup, poured over "whatever," and baked. There is a dish that both repels and attracts me, that has the nickname "faggot pudding." It's a bake of canned tuna and cream of mushroom soup. Annalena must confess that she likes this. Don't ask why, it makes no sense.
And you all have something like this. In some cases, the dish becomes a "classic." What, for example, do you think "shephard's pie" started out as?
Well, on Thursday of last week, yours truly was confronted with this kind of situation: what's for dinner? What did I feel like cooking? Well, frankly, Thursday was one of those days where, if you graphed the week with emotional highs and emotional lows, this was off the scale, at the bottom end. Oh yes, Annalena was so down in the dumps that she could have constructed a dish of root vegetables only. Imagination in the kitchen? Not on Thursday.

So, digging around, I found an eggplant. I found a bag of wild mushrooms that I had paid a small fortune for and had forgotten about. And.... where preplanning is such a good thing, containers of tomato confit. As Jackie Gleason used to say 'AND AWAY WE GO.' In about 30 minutes I had a pasta sauce which, to be quite honest, did not taste of its origins. It was quite terrific. And it is open to many variations, as I exhibited this morning. Try this.

I peeled the eggplant and cut it into small dice. I knew I wanted a darker, carmelized version of the eggplant, which is why I cut it very small. Then I did something very important with eggplant: I salted it , rather heavily and let it sit for a minute or two. This brings out the water, of which eggplant is jammed, and also gets some flavor into a bland vegetable. I then heated about three tablespoons of olive oil until it was VERY hot. Again, important for eggplant, as it is the "sponge" of vegetables. Eggplant will pick up every bit of oil you give it. But you can solve this problem with a bit of patience.

The mushrooms were small enough that I did not have to cut them, I just had to brush the dirt off them (yes, these were, truly WILD mushrooms) . The tomato confit just needed a bit of chopping.

So the eggplant went into the oil. I let it sit. When you fry eggplant in this way, don't move it for a few minutes. Yes, it is going to stick, but that's ok. After about five minutes, stir it. Now you stir it every two minutes or so, and you will see a soft mass forming as the eggplant gives up its water. When it does that, it will begin to release some of the oil. Not all of it, however, so you'll need to put in a tablespoon or two when you add the mushrooms. They only need cook three minutes or so.

Your pan will have taken on a seared, black layer on the bottom. That is ok. When you add the chopped tomato confit (or, canned tomatoes, or, fresh tomatoes, however many you want), you will see how the liquid in that fruit takes up what was there. Now, all that lovely fond is mixed in with your sauce. Just stir a bit, and you are done....

Or are you? As I found out today, this works wonderfully for incorporating left over green vegetables (broccoli), and you can also, as I found out, toss in chunks of a soft cheese, like mozzarella or fontina, or something of that ilk.

It will make a lot, but you will want this. It can serve, for example, as it will this weekend, as a canape' topping. It can serve, as it did yesterday , as a snack when you come back from doing 45 minutes of cardio work. And it can be used to make a quick lunch for the fishermen who make you look so good because their stuff is so fresh.

Try it. Improvise. I call it "wotthehell sauce." Call it whatever you like, but call it delicious. Because it is.