melitzáni

Aubergine (eggplant) is popular in a dozen Greek dishes from moussaká and papoutsákia and imam bayildi to melitzanósalata. Others include

μελιτζάνα Αμοργιανή (melitzána Amorgianí): aubergines sautéed and layered with sauce made from garlic, onion, tomatoes, cinnamon and cloves, topped with a dollop of xinomyzithra and baked in the oven. From Amorgos.

μελιτζάνα πολίτικη (melitzána polítiki): made with tomatoes, green onions, garlic, walnuts and feta.

Kinds of aubergines

μελιτζάνες φλάσκες (melitzánes fláskes): the familiar big dark purple; the Greek word references their flask shape.

μελιτζάνες Σαντορίνης: small, white, and plump

μελιτζάνες την Τήνου: plump like a ‘flask’, but greenish

μελιτζάνες τη Λαγκαδά: dark purple, but long and narrow

Τσακώνικη Μελιτζάνα Λεωνιδίου: The Arcadian town of Leonídio, on the east coast of the Peloponnese, produces a long narrow tender magenta PDO (ΠΟΠ) aubergine known as Tsakóniki or tsakonian eggplants that are never ever bitter, they say because they grow on a plain right by the sea

Every August Leonídio holds a festival celebrating their famous melitzáni, when over a tonne are prepared in a wide variety of ways, and there's music and dancing until dawn.