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Return the eggplant to the oven for an additional 15 minutes and remove the garlic, setting it aside to cool. The garlic should have been in for 40 minutes, but if you did the eggplant flipping with lightning speed, give the garlic a few more minutes to bake.

On the stovetop, preheat a soup pot over medium-high heat. Sauté the onions in 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly browned. The eggplant should be ready while the onion is browning, so remove the eggplant from the oven and set aside (if you are running out of counter space, use tongs to transfer the eggplant to a bowl).

Add the garlic to the onions and sauté for 2 more minutes. Add the white wine and herbs and cook for about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, tearing up each tomato with your hands before adding to the pot, and add the remaining tomato juice from the can.

Add the eggplant to the pot and mix well. Don’t be afraid of crushing the eggplant; in fact it’s good if it gets a little crushed.

Remove the peppers from the bag and peel away the skin. If for some reason the skin won’t peel, don’t sweat it. Chop the peppers into bite-size pieces and add to the soup pot along with the chickpeas. Lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

To prepare the garlic, wet your hands (to avoid sticking) and squeeze each roasted garlic clove into the soup pot. Mix well, turn off the heat, and let the stew sit for as long as you can stand to let the flavors to develop.

Serve!

KABOCHA-UDON WINTER STEW

Serves 4

TIME: about 35 minutes

Feel healthy (or just fake it, deliciously) by eating this mellow broth loaded with sweet kabocha squash and vegetables. It’s a welcome break from the usual heavy winter fare, but still it’s light enough to be just as welcome in warmer weather. The clear broth is Japanese-style dashi broth flavored with dried shiitake mushrooms, sake, and sea vegetables. The chewy udon noodles make this a complete meal, but also try serving with packaged Japanese-style pickles alongside.

If you haven’t guessed already, you’ll need a few Japanese specialty items for this stew. We recommend making this if you’ve ever stepped into a huge, well-stocked Asian market, got really excited, brought home a big bag of groceries, then asked yourself “What the hell am I going to make with all this stuff?” Now you can go shopping with purpose!

Shiitake dashi broth: 2 quarts cold water

2 (4-inch) pieces kombu (kelp)

⅓ cup shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)

2 teaspoons sugar

½ ounce dried shiitake mushrooms

(4-5 dried)

2 (¼-inch-thick) slices fresh ginger, lightly crushed with the side of a knife

Stew: ½ pound fresh udon noodles

1 large leek, washed well and sliced into ½-inch lengths

1 large carrot, peeled and sliced into ½-thick pieces

1½-2 pounds kabocha (about 1 small squash), unpeeled but seeded and sliced into 2 × 1-inch pieces

6-8 ounces fried tofu pouches (aburage), or firm silken tofu, sliced into strips or cubes

⅓ cup sake

2 tablespoons mirin

2 scallions, sliced very thin

Optional garnishes: Japanese hot pepper powder and additional shoyu

PREPARE THE broth: Pour 2 quarts of water into a large soup pot and add the kombu, shoyu, sugar, dried shiitakes, and ginger. Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat so that it gently simmers. Cook for 15 minutes.

Taste the broth and add a little more shoyu if it’s not quite salty enough (but don’t overdo it—it’s easy to pour too much!). Remove the kombu, ginger, and mushrooms. Allow the mushrooms to cool enough to handle, slice very thinly, and return to pot. Cover the pot and keep the broth warm over a low flame.

➣Kabocha squash is an Asian pumpkin with deep orange, nutty-flavored flesh that’s sweeter and slightly drier that regular pumpkin. A bonus for lazy cooks: the deep green, thin skin of kabocha squash cooks up tender and edible, so no need to peel. We have no problem finding it in supermarkets but, if you can’t find it, use peeled sugar pumpkin, acorn, delicate, or butternut. You’ll probably need to extend