Creamy aubergine & tahini dip

In the last few centuries, aubergines have been at the heart of Levantine cuisine, just as they are in Italian cuisine today. Long before that, however, its dark colour and bitter taste gave the aubergine a reputation for being toxic. Amusingly, the same mistrust which met the humble aubergine in Italy when it was first brought there by the Arabs — gaining the name ‘unhealthy apple’, la mela insana — had also greeted this tasty vegetable back in the ninth century when it entered Arab