Berenjenas a la Veracruzana

Veracruz, especially the port and the Sotavento coast, owns this sauce. Jitomate, aceituna verde, alcaparra, laurel, oregano, garlic, onion, and chile jalapeno en escabeche. That is the Veracruzana hand. It tastes like a port city because it is a port city: Mexican tomato and chile carrying Spanish olives and capers across the table.

Berenjena is not native to Mexico. Good. Veracruz knows what to do with arrivals. The women who perfected this sauce did not treat foreign ingredients like decoration. They put them to work in cazuelas, especially on Fridays of Lent when fish was expensive or meat was off the table. Eggplant takes the place of fish here because it drinks the sauce and softens without falling apart, if you salt it and brown it first. Skip that and you get wet sponge. No me vengas con atajos.

The chile is jalapeno, preferably en escabeche, because its vinegar cuts the sweetness of the tomato and the richness of the olive oil. Not every Mexican dish is about heat. This one is about acidity, salt, fruit, and patience. Serve it from a clay cazuela with black beans and warm corn tortillas, maybe over a banana leaf if your mercado has good ones. Cada estado, su propia cocina.