Whole Roasted Eggplant with Bacon & Hazelnuts

Brimming with Mediterranean flavors—salty pork, orange, garlic, and nuts—this dish works best with petite globe eggplant varieties, like Rosita. Their not-too-big and not-too-tiny size aligns well with the cooking time needed for the bacon and garlic to caramelize and perfume the interiors. Fresh herbs, as always, will make this dish pop, as will a nice deglaze of the pan at the end to get all of the good bits up to form a sauce. This dish makes a wonderful main on its own with a little aio