I have a confession to make. I don't much care for those big globe eggplants. I have tried to like them, truly I have, but I think it's a texture thing. They just taste squishy to me. If squishy is a taste. So this last week, Hank and I have been experimenting with globe eggplants, trying to see what we could come up with that we truly liked, given the challenges of this ingredient. We've had a couple in-the-trash-it-goes experiments, and a couple of hits as well.

This grilled eggplant burger or sandwich is one of those hits. I made it again for my parents today and even my dad liked it. He had two. And he doesn't like eggplant! The only reason he came over for lunch when he heard what I was serving was that mom was coming and he didn't want to be left at home alone.

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Have you ever cooked with radicchio? Until recently I have only had it in salads. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with it, radicchio looks like a small head of red cabbage; you can usually find it in the produce section of your grocery store. It's actually not a cabbage, but a chicory, and it has a just slightly bitter, crisp taste.

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Have you noticed the brightly colored bell peppers in the market lately? They're glorious. Here's a quick and easy recipe for Italian peperonata, or fried peppers, with onions, fresh plum tomatoes, garlic, and basil. This is one of those "I almost ate the whole batch" dishes, only reluctantly shared with my parents who agreed they were terrific. Peperonata recipes come in many versions; some get cooked a good long time, some get cooked with potatoes, or without tomatoes. This dish is certainly open-for-improvisation. Rather than cooking the peppers until they were stew-like, we opted for a light sauté so there is still some crunch in the vegetables. A perfect side dish for chicken or fish, great on bread, and great on its own too.

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