Un Plat d’Aubergines et de Tomates à M. Chabrier

Eighty-year-old M. Chabrier was my neighbour in Vézénobres. And whenever we met we talked about food; sometimes we sat on the high terrace overlooking the valley below and, at other times, in front of the brick fireplace which his wife had waxed for fifty years until it looked like glass and of which he was very proud.

‘This land around here is aubergine country,’ he said one morning, ‘so I’ll tell you a good way of eating them.’

Wipe some medium-sized auber