Graffiti eggplant
Solanum melongena · Fruit vegetable
Top 10 pairings
The graffiti eggplant — the old Spanish heirloom Listada de Gandia — is the striped one, its plump teardrop body splashed with irregular violet-purple and white marbling that looks hand-painted. Behind the showy skin is its real appeal: thin, tender skin and pale, sweet, creamy flesh with very little of the bitterness or spongy seediness of a big globe eggplant, so it cooks up silky and mild.
Picking a good onedrag
Glossy, heavy, springs backDull, light, spongy
Shop firmEveryday bestThe all-rounder: roast, fry, stew, parmigiana.
CapCap green, edges drying back
SkinGlossy, a scuff or two
The pressDent fades as you watch
Smell at the capAlmost no smell at all
These cues are Eggplant's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.
What you get from one
97%
Edible part
548 g · cap and stem off
565 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
Below 10 °C it pits and its seeds brown; in a 5 °C fridge that takes about a week.
90–95%
Humidity
Loosely bagged
Airflow