Recipe for Tomato and Roasted Eggplant Soup, Anchovy Aioli

Preheat the oven to 210°C (or 230°C for static heat). Peel the eggplants by only removing strips of skin from top to bottom, alternating between strips of dark skin and flesh. Cut them into pieces of 2-3 cm. Rinse, seed, and cut the red bell peppers (or sweet peppers) into strips.

Line a large baking sheet or roasting pan with a large piece of parchment paper. Arrange the eggplants, tomatoes, and strips of red peppers on it. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt, plenty of pepper, and drizzle with oil.

Mix everything together to coat the vegetables in oil and bake for 45 minutes. Stir once halfway through cooking, until the eggplants are a deep golden brown, then let cool.

Start the garlic mayonnaise in the meantime: peel, remove the sprouts, and finely chop the garlic. Drain the anchovies. Put them with the olive oil in a saucepan (that can later hold a liter of broth) over low heat. Let them cook gently, stirring occasionally, for 12 minutes, until the garlic and anchovies are tender and can be crushed with the back of a spoon. Make sure the oil does not get too hot; otherwise, the garlic will stick and burn: if it bubbles too much, remove the saucepan from the heat to cool down a bit, and then return it to the heat.

Pour half of the garlic and anchovy oil mixture into a measuring cup, add the neutral oil and let it cool.

Return the pot with the remaining garlic-anchovy oil mixture over medium-high heat, then add the tomato paste and sauté for three minutes, until the mixture is fragrant.

Add the broth (a broth cube and one liter of boiling water), the lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of salt (be careful, the anchovies are salty) and let the broth simmer gently over medium heat for 15 minutes.

To finish the aioli: add the egg yolk, the second lemon juice, and a pinch of salt into the measuring cup. Blend with an immersion blender until the mixture is well emulsified with a soft mayonnaise-like consistency. If you are using the small bowl of a food processor, put the egg yolk, lemon juice, and salt, and slowly pour in the cooled garlic-oil mixture while the motor is running until the mixture emulsifies and thickens to a mayonnaise-like consistency. Transfer to a small bowl.