Baba Ganoush

Recipe by: Leslie Brenner

There’s a colorful story behind the name baba ganoush, but from a cook’s point of view, the most important thing to know about the dish is that it’s often called “burnt eggplant dip.”

You can get the dish’s requisite smoky flavor by broiling whole eggplants until they’re charred all over — or, even better, setting them directly on hot coals outside on a charcoal grill. After that, a simple formula gets you there: roasted eggplant + tahini + lemon + salt + garnishes. Garlic is optional, but I never skip it. Cumin is also optional, and I skip it more often than not — just because the simplicity of the basic thing is so delightful. When I’m in a cumin-y mood, though, I enjoy its addition — especially when I toast cumin seeds and grind them in a mortar.

I experimented with myriad recipes — probably learning the most from Claudia Roden, author of The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, Arabesque (and othe…