Eggplant Stacks with Wild Boar Ragú

My father was one of five children -- two girls, three hungry boys. Like every good Italian family, meals were served at table from large plates that were passed from person to person. I assume there must have been some sort of passing hierarchy, because my father always tells stories of anxiously waiting for the plate to reach him -- the second-to-last child -- at which point the good parts of the dish had been taken. Because the men in the family had such great appetites, there was always a sense of immediacy to the meal: eat quickly, or be left hungry.

I am sure that the threat of not having enough dinner was part of what made my father love food so much. It wasn't that food was scarce for his family, but rather that my father's voracious, teenage appetite couldn't easily be sated around a table of a family of seven, plus guests. Fortunately, he and my mother bore two girls, which means that my father always gets the lion's share of the meal.

For my father's birthday last month, my mother and I gave him the gift of a culinary weekend: three magnificent dinners and a delicious brunch. The following recipe, Eggplant Stacks with Wild Boar Ragú, is one of the dishes my mother and I prepared for him. My mother has a knack for finding all sorts of wild game meat to put into her dishes. She buys the D'Artagnan brand boar products. My father, ever the wine connoisseur, recommends this dish with a sturdy Barolo.


EGGPLANT STACKS WITH WILD BOAR RAGU

Serves 4

1 large Vidalia onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound boneless wild boar meat, cut into medium-sized cubes
1 pound chopped tomatoes
3 bay leaves
Fresh or dried oregano
Fresh basil
1 cup red wine
1 large eggplant, cut into1/4-inch slices
Fontina cheese (or another similar cheese that melts well, like Istara)
Fettucine pasta, or another spaghetti-like variety
Salt and pepper, to taste


In a large cast-iron pot, sauté the onion in olive oil until translucent. Add garlic. Add the boar meat and cook until seared and brown.

De-glaze the pan with a splash of wine, letting the boar absorb some of the wine, about thirty seconds. Add the tomatoes and the bay leaves and oregano. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Let ragù simmer on low on the stovetop. leaving the lid of the pot slightly ajar. Keep stirring occasionally for at least two hours. The longer the ragù is left to simmer, the more tender the meat will become.

Brush the eggplant rounds with olive oil, sprinkling with salt and pepper. Grill both sides of the eggplant until cooked. Remove from grill, and set aside on a dish for assembly.

Boil a large pot of water for pasta. Add salt once water has begun to boil. Add pasta, cook until al dente, and strain water thoroughly.

The ragù iwill be ready to eat when the meat falls apart from the cubes and has absorbed most of the liquid.

To assemble eggplant stacks, begin first layer on plate with eggplant. Add a layer of fontina cheese, a spoonful of ragù, followed by a full basil leaf. Repeat until desired height is reached, about three layers. Top with a generous spoonful of ragù, cheese, and chiffonade pieces of basil. In another corner of the dish, twist pasta into a nest, spooning ragù into the center. Sprinkle with cheese, and enjoy with a glass of Barolo.

Buon apetito!