Stuffed eggplants

Per la ricetta originale Milangiane ‘mbuttunate (melanzane farcite) vedere qui.

 

In Calabria, as in the rest of southern Italy, eggplants are prepared in various ways and the same dish has many variations based on the different areas of each region. I usually prepare stuffed eggplants with meat, but for La CucinaRegionale, I had an opportunity to make these stuffed eggplants, it is a new recipe for me and I promise you, it is so good that I will be making it again very soon. So here is the recipe, taken from the book, UominiCibiStagioni (Men Foods Seasons) and with a few changes.

Stuffed eggplants

Remove the top of the eggplants, wash them, dry them with a kitchen towel, make some slits in the eggplant with a sharp knife, sprinkle with salt and let them sweat for at least one hour, to eliminate the bitterness. Prepare the filling, use a food processor to grind the bread crumb and the cheese and to chop the basil and garlic. I chose not to use the garlic. Rinse the eggplants, squeeze them lightly and dry them. Place a piece of cheese in each slit and some of the breadcrumb filling.

Place a generous amount of oil in a saucepan and heat it well. Fry the eggplants in the oil. Reduce the heat to low and cook for approximately 10 minutes. Drain the eggplants and place them in a dish with paper towels. In a terracotta saucepan, heat some olive oil and sauté ½ chopped onion, add the tomatoes cut into cubes and with its seeds removed. After a few minutes add the stuffed eggplants and cook for approximately 10 minutes. The eggplants need to absorb some of the sauce. It is possible to use the remaining sauce to prepare a delicious dish of spaghetti. Serve.

Ingredients

• 4 purple eggplants, small and round

• fresh bread crumb

• grated Parmesan cheese

• provola cheese

• basil

• olive oil

• sweet red onion

• salt

• 500 gr cherry tomatoes

• garlic