I'm on an eggplant binge. Some time ago I posted a recipe for eggplant crumble to which my readers responed with mixed emotions. This is a 100% southern Italian recipe for stuffed eggplant I learned to make in Calabria. It employs bread, mint leaves and Pecorino Romano cheese.
A Mediterranean summer solace.
A Mediterranean summer solace.
Ingredients:
4-6 large eggplants
Day-old bread, crusts removed and crumbled (for amounts see below)
1 or 2 garlic cloves, minced
50 g (1/4 cup) Italian flatleaf parsley, finely chopped
A sprig of fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
1/4 cup Pecorino Romano, grated
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Stem the eggplants but don't peel them, and blanch them briefly in salted water. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise, and scoop out the pulp with a spoon, leaving about 1/2-inch from the skins.
Sliver the pulp–for each cup of chopped eggplant pulp you’ll need about 3/4 cup crumbled stale bread. Mix the slivered pulp with the bread, garlic, parsley, mint and cheese, a glug of olive oil and season the mixture to taste with salt and pepper.
Lightly grease the skins of the eggplant shells with a dab of olive oil, and place in a parchment paper-lined ovenproof dish.
Heap the shells with the mixture, drizzle with more olive oil, and bake at moderate temperature (190° C / 375° F) until done, roughly 45 minutes to 1 hour, oven depending.
Pop the cork off the chilled white Cirò and let the pleasure moans begin.
{Calabrian eye candy}
