ITALY
Melanzane Ripiene (stuffed eggplant)
45 mins
4 persons
Average
After returning from a wonderful holiday with friends in Italy, we couldn't say goodbye to the fantastic Italian food. Fortunately, Enrico, who also gave us the recipe for authentic Italian bruschetta a while back, was able to give us a recipe for Melanzane Ripiene (Italian for stuffed eggplant).
This dish originally comes from Cilento, a region in the south of Italy. In this recipe, the eggplant is not filled whole, but you cut the eggplant into thick slices, each of which is filled with a special goat's cheese filling. The goat cheese used in the original recipe is 'Cilento dry goat cheese', but this is slightly more difficult to obtain in Dutch supermarkets. We have therefore used a more common hard goat's cheese. Also very tasty, but we are already looking forward to our next trip to Italy where we can purchase the original, authentic cheese.
Tip: use good extra virgin olive oil when making the recipe. We highly recommend the award-winning olive oil from the reciper Enrico: Alberta Iannicelli , recently also available on Amazon .
Preparation
Step 1: Make the tomato sauce.
Cut the tomatoes into small pieces.
Heat a dash of olive oil over low heat in a soup pan and add the tomato pieces.
Let the tomatoes simmer for a while until the mixture is soft and a tomato sauce is formed.
Step 2: Prepare the filling
Grate the goat cheese and chop the garlic finely.
Mix the goat cheese and garlic together with the eggs and some salt and pepper to taste with a fork.
Step 3: Stuff the eggplant
In the meantime, cut the aubergines into slices of about 2 centimeters.
Then cut a deep slit in each slice lengthwise, but not all the way to the end, so you can fill it.
Fill the eggplant slices with the goat cheese filling. Watch this video for more instructions.
Step 4: Fry the eggplants
Heat a generous layer of normal olive oil in a high pan.
Briefly fry the stuffed aubergines until they are light brown and let them drain on kitchen paper.
Step 5: Mix the fried eggplants with the sauce
Blend the tomato sauce in a food processor or a hand blender. Our tomatoes had already disintegrated to such an extent that this was no longer necessary.
In another pan, fry the red onion in olive oil.
Add the sauce and let it simmer for another 10 minutes.
Place the eggplants in the sauce and turn them several times with a wooden spoon
Step 6: Serve the Melanzane Ripiene
Place everything on a plate and sprinkle with a little extra virgin olive oil, fresh basil and some fresh pepper.
Ingredients
3 fresh eggplants
2 eggs
120 grams of 'Cilento dry goat cheese' or a hard goat cheese
2 cloves of garlic
1 red onion
1 kilo of fresh ripe tomatoes
A handful of fresh basil
Extra virgin olive oil
Olive oil for frying
Salt and pepper to taste
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