Imam Bayildi

Whole aubergines slit lengthwise, slowly braised in olive oil with a generous stuffing of onion, tomato, garlic, parsley, and sometimes pine nut and currant: cooked low and long until the aubergine collapses into silken flesh, the onion softens to translucent sweetness, and the dish swims in spiced olive oil. Served at room temperature, never hot, as a meze or as a vegetarian main. The name means the imam fainted, supposedly from how much olive oil it took. The signature is the slow-cooked silky aubergine wrapped in concentrated olive-oil-and-tomato sweetness, with parsley as the green-bright counterpoint.