the hungry tiger: Sicilian stuffed eggplant

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July 23, 2002

Sicilian stuffed eggplant

Stuffed eggplant and curried couscous with currants tonight. The stuffing for the eggplant is delicious, if weird looking, and atavistically fun to play with, like Play-Doh. This recipe is not in any way authentically Sicilian, but it is the result of what happened to some rather distant recipe for Sicilian eggplant after going through the mangler of my cortex.

PREPPING THE EGGPLANT
Take one medium-to-large eggplant. Cut off the ends and slice in half lengthwise. Make three incisions, about 2" deep, lengthwise down the cut side of each eggplant, stopping about 1/2" from the ends. Sprinkle salt in the incisions and over cut side of the eggplant and set in a colander to drain for at least half an hour.

MAKING THE STUFFING
Mince two large or three medium cloves of garlic and three tablespoons of drained capers, very fine. Mix these with 4 ounces of soft goat cheese, 1/4 cup of red wine, and a splash of vinegar, until it's all blended into a creamy purple soup. Mix in 3/4 cup of bread crumbs, and you should have something about the consistency of what I think library paste is like. It will be a very strange color at this point, but you should not let that stop you. Now mix in 1 teaspoon dried oregano and some freshly ground pepper. You will not need salt.

STUFFING AND BAKING THE EGGPLANT
Preheat the oven to 375° F. Rinse the eggplant and dry it with paper towels or clean dishcloths. Oil the skin side of the eggplant with olive oil and set the halves, face up, on a cooking sheet. You may want to put foil on the sheet. Push the cheese mixture into the incisions. It will bulge. That's fine. Mound leftover filling on top and pack it down. Bake until the eggplant is collapsingly soft. Turn up the heat as high as it will go for a couple of minutes to brown the top. Remove from oven. Eat.

Posted by redfox at July 23, 2002 09:15 PM (recipes)