BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Italian Food Eggplant prep.

I've noticed that "new" recipes for eggplant and tv cooking shows no longer call for the old way of salting and draining the "bitter" from cut egglant before using it, the way my Sicilian grandmother taught me. I still do it. Does anyone else? Do the varieties of eggplant being grown now eliminate the need for this?

I find the bitter mostly resides in the peel, so peeling it helps get rid of that taste.

Salting helps, but it also draws moisture out so that cooking it, it isn't as mushy.

I think with the oriental varieties, many folks don't peel or salt.

If you use smaller, younger eggplant you don't need to salt it. The larger, older eggplant is more bitter.

Thanks for the info!