aubergine steaks with mint ricotta

it's been a crazy week... and tomorrow one of my oldest and best friends will come for dinner. i'm so happy! going to cook a few pretty rondinis and giant portobellos. oh, and stay tuned for my sacher chocolate torte!

but in the meantime: you'll have noticed that my craving for aubergines is unstoppable... i have no clue what started it. maybe because i'm so boring. and maybe because it's such a grateful veg. just so versatile! what with it's ability to transform into a charred, dryish (in a positive way) texture when rosted or grilled? that makes it so versatile (uhm, yeah i said that before, sry).

here this dish was inspired by smittenkitchen, adapted only slightly. i simply roasted the chunky aubergine discs in the oven until lightly charred, and then topped them (still hot) with a sort of salad/salsa/pesto made of tomatoes, black olives (instead of capers), garlic, peperoncino, scallions, mint (i think i added this as i went), basil, olive oil and fleur de sel. and on top i added a bit of ricotta. i imagine this being very nice with feta cheese, and maybe dried tomatoes, too. next time...

side note: admittedly the ricotta i got for this is rather a commercial, humid one, i'm afraid, and not very good to 'crumble' on top of things, like aubergine steaks... but hey, nobody is perfect, right?