Eggplant with garlic mashed potatoes, in the oven (Melitzanes me skordalia STO Furno) impossible to live without eggplant in Mediterranean cuisine and in Greece in particular! A well-known source of fiber and b vitamins, rich in salts of calcium, potassium, phosphorus and iron, it is roasted or boiled, baked and stewed, used for sauces and salads. In the ancient Sanskrit texts of India, it is called the longevity vegetable. In our days, India and China are the largest producers of eggplant in the world. The Mediterranean learned this vegetable thanks to Arab merchants, who brought a vegetable, which they called baingan, in the Byzantine Empire. In the Byzantine and Latin pronunciation, it became known as melongena, whence the Italian "melanzana" and the Greek melitzana. And since to imagine without eggplant neither the Italian nor the Greek kitchen is simply impossible!