Signature dish
Aubergine with buttermilk sauce
Yotam Ottolenghi · 1968 · London — born in Jerusalem
Roast aubergine halves spooned with a buttermilk and yoghurt sauce and scattered with za'atar and pomegranate seeds, from Ottolenghi's 2010 vegetable book Plenty.
Why it works
Roasting collapses the aubergine's air-filled flesh so it drinks up the olive oil, and the lactic acid in the buttermilk and yoghurt cuts that oil on the palate.