Mixed with sausage can become a meatball with its taste.
Origin
Rotonda Red Eggplant, Solanum Aethiopicum, arrived in the Potenza province during the 1800s, imported by soldiers coming back from the Ethiopian war. The Red Eggplant spread in the Mercure valley and thanks to its versatility in the kitchen and because of the hunger spread during the Second World War, it became a daily ingredient for the farmers of the area. Now it grown in every garden of Rotonda, in the Pollino National Park and the harvesting time I from august till November. It is so unique, that it is also part of the Slow Food “Ark of Taste” catalogue.
Cookit
This eggplant is as big as an apple, has the color of a tomato and a spicy and sour taste. It is often eaten fresh and raw or in oil or vinegar. In the city of Rotonsa, there are typical dishes like “scialatelli alla Melanzana rossa” and “Melanzana rossa alla scapece”. Besides, in the whole Basilicata these eggplants are fried and seasoned with mint and garlic, some caciocavallo cheese and fusilli.
Did you know
In the local dialect is called “merlingiana a pummadora” because it is small and round, like a tomato, orange with green and red shades. Every year, in the middle of august there is the “il bianco e la rossa” (white and the red) fair, in Rotonda, to celebrate a record: two DOPs in a territory of about 200 square km: white beans and red eggplants.
