Eggplant Caviar

Eggplant, or “Guinea squash” as it is called in the Lowcountry, came early to the colony from West Africa, years before Thomas Jefferson supposedly single-handedly introduced it. I suspect that the Sephardic Jews who settled here also brought it with them, for many of our recipes have a Mediterranean feel to them, such as this “poor man’s caviar.”

I offer this “dip” and bowls of salsa in the summertime, with some chips and crudités, to start off a meal of