Clay Pot–Roasted Eggplant with Cheese

Here’s a modern interpretation of an old Catalan dish. The combination of sweetened eggplant and cheese may strike you as strange, but, in fact, adding honey to off set the mild bitterness of eggplant really works.

The key here is slow-roasting the eggplant to achieve a rich, distinctive flavor and aroma. You can do this over coals, under the broiler, directly over the flame of a gas stovetop, or, my new favorite method, by placing an unpeeled eggplant in a dry Chinese sandpot and c