My two year old is currently running his firetruck across my keyboard, so please bear with me if there are spelling errors. He got shots at his 2 year check-up today, so it's-cling-to-mommy-for-dear-life-day.
Moving on...
I'd never had an eggplant cross the threshold of my kitchen before last Tuesday. In fact, I cannot recall having seen a raw eggplant before at all other than in pictures. Eggplants are weird. They are not a squash as you might think. They're actually related to potatoes, tomatoes and sweet peppers.
Anyway, I got one in my bag of organic goodies from the natural foods co-op and had no idea what to do with the silly thing, so while I was looking up stroganoff recipes for last night's dinner, I did a little searching for inspiration eggplant dishes. Coming across several recipes that all had elements of things that sounded good, I decided to steal them all and make my own conglomerated recipe. (Scary, considering my first experience cooking squash was a disaster that should have its own place in the record books.)
Nonetheless, I learned very quickly when I spooned out the middle of the eggplant that it was most definitely not 'squashy', but rather spongy and dry. Nervously I kept completing step after step, and as the stuffing started coming together I couldn't help but sample this scary concoction. I got a pleasant surprise.
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Italian Stuffed Eggplant
What you'll need:
1 eggplant, halved lengthwise
Salt and pepper to taste
1 T olive oil
2 T olive oil
1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage (without casings)
1 small onion, diced
1 (4 oz) can mushroom pieces
1 (3 oz) can sliced olives
1 c Italian Breadcrumbs
1/2 c Red cooking wine
1/2 c Parmesan cheese
2 T parsley, freshly chopped
1/3 c shredded mozzarella cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice the eggplant in half if you haven't already and scrape out most of the guts, setting the scrapings aside in a bowl, leaving about 3/4 of an inch of fleshy stuff around the edges of the halves. Drizzle the halves with a tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper, then setting them aside in a casserole dish or on a baking sheet. Chop the eggplant scrapings and again set them aside again.
In a large skillet, heat the two tablespoons of olive oil, throw in the Italian Sausage but be sure you've squeezed it out of the casings. Be sure it's nicely browned before you add in the chopped eggplant scrapings, diced onion, mushrooms, olives, and parsley. Once the onions are cooked through, pour in the breadcrumbs, stirring constantly until all is well-coated, then add in the Parmesan cheese, stirring again. Next, pour in the red wine and let the mixture simmer for 5 minutes, making sure it doesn't burn.
Stuff the halves, mounding them with the filling mixture. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, then top with mozzarella and bake for another 10 minutes. Then serve!
Ratings from the Experts*: Hubby gives the stuffing a 9/10. Said it made him want to scrape the pan for the last dredges so he could gobble it up like he did with last night's stroganoff. Although- he says the skin on the eggplant wasn't tender enough and rates the dish overall a 7/10. I'm wondering if this could be remedied by playing with cooking times some?
As for me, I give it a solid 9/10. The skin didn't bother me and the fleshy part of the eggplant was cooked just right. The stuffing was I-can't-believe-I-did-that-on-the-first-try good! Do I need to say more?
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