Table for One
The Umami-Packed Pasta I Cook When I’m Home Alone
This single-serving eggplant spaghetti takes just 30 minutes to make.
Table for One is a column by Senior Editor Eric Kim, who loves cooking for himself—and only himself—and seeks to celebrate the beauty of solitude in its many forms.
The very first piece I wrote for Food52 was about how much I used to hate eggplant. It took a simple salad—which you can make from start to finish in a quarter sheet pan—for me to finally gain an appreciation for the bitter nightshade fruit. (Yes, eggplant is botanically a fruit, technically a berry.)
Since that first column, I've been riffing on the same construction because it's so easy and reliable: Roast an eggplant in the oven with olive oil, salt, and pepper, then toss it with some acid, maybe an herb for freshness at the end.
That original recipe calls on lemon juice and mint, but these days I've been going a deeper, sweeter route by roasting the eggplant with a pinch of cumin and thickly sliced red onion, which get gorgeous and caramelized in the hot oven. I'll eat this as a side dish with lamb chops or grilled baby back ribs.
Any leftovers the next day I'll blitz up in the food processor with a dollop of Greek yogurt for a last-minute bademjan dip. It's nice to stave off that post-work ravenousness with a makeshift appetizer like this, complete with pita chips and a glass of red wine, while you're cooking the main course.
Most recently, I've been obsessed with white miso.
That's a lie. I bought white miso once only to use a teaspoon of it, I forget for what, and the rest sat in the back of my fridge for weeks.
Until one night, I went to a Japanese restaurant and ordered a miso-glazed black cod dish that tasted so buttery, so savory, so full of umami that I vowed to recreate it at home as soon as I could. That tub of white miso quickly disappeared as I tested various recipes I had found on the internet, including this one:
Namiko Chen's marinade only calls for three ingredients: miso, mirin, and sake, all of which I keep in my pantry at all times (though the sake's not so much for cooking, but for drinking, hot, alone on the couch with a good book).
This black cod with miso was easily one of the most delicious dinners I'd cooked for myself in a while. Eager to stretch the leftover marinade-slash-glaze for as long as possible, I found ways to use up my reserve a little at a time: as a breath mint, as a dipping sauce for French fries, and as a salty-sweet caramel for roasted eggplant.
When I made the eggplant in particular, I found that I could extend its life by tossing it with cooked spaghetti—a quarter pound, which is the perfect portion for me. A few more ingredients joined the party as I continued to refine the dish: red pepper flakes for heat, rice vinegar for balance, and garlic for savoriness. (The sake didn't make the final cut because I drank it all.)
As I twirled and slurped my dinner in bed, watching television (easily one of life's greatest pleasures), I thought: Is there anything more satisfying than making exactly the right amount of food so you can eat something new tomorrow?
One thing about me is that I don't always want leftovers. I love heading into my kitchen every night, tabula rasa, peeking into my fridge and messing around with ingredients in my pantry to come up with a meal I've never had before.
Still, if ever there were a dish you'd want to eat over and over—one that awakens and satisfies the taste receptors of the tongue that love glutamate—then this umami-packed pasta must be it.
| 1/2 | pound Japanese eggplants (regular works, too), diced into 1-inch pieces |
| 1/2 | medium red onion, thickly sliced |
| Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper | |
| 3 | tablespoons olive oil, divided |
| 2 | teaspoons white miso |
| 2 | teaspoons mirin |
| 1 | teaspoon rice vinegar |
| 1/2 | teaspoon dark brown sugar |
| Pinch of red pepper flakes | |
| 1 | garlic clove, finely grated |
| 1/4 | pound spaghetti |
| 1 | scallion, thinly sliced, for garnish (optional) |
| 1/2 | pound Japanese eggplants (regular works, too), diced into 1-inch pieces |
| 1/2 | medium red onion, thickly sliced |
| Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper | |
| 3 | tablespoons olive oil, divided |
| 2 | teaspoons white miso |
| 2 | teaspoons mirin |
| 1 | teaspoon rice vinegar |
| 1/2 | teaspoon dark brown sugar |
| Pinch of red pepper flakes | |
| 1 | garlic clove, finely grated |
| 1/4 | pound spaghetti |
| 1 | scallion, thinly sliced, for garnish (optional) |
A New Way to Dinner, co-authored by Food52's founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, is an indispensable playbook for stress-free meal-planning (hint: cook foundational dishes on the weekend and mix and match ‘em through the week).
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Written by: Eric Kim
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