Italian Eggplant Bake with Mozzarella

Not Ready For Prime Time, But Still Tastes Good

This recipe illustrates the creative process as I begin to develop a recipe.

I was looking for a recipe to use some eggplant (and other vegetables I had bought), so I went on line for inspiration.

I often go to the Allrecipes.com site, although like all recipe sharing sites, there's a lot to sift through to find something that's close to what you're looking for. In this case, I picked a recipe for Briam (Greek Mixed Vegetables in Tomato Sauce) as a starting point. It made lots more than my friend and I could eat (2 potatoes + 2 eggplant + 3 zucchini + 3 green bell peppers + 2 cups okra !!!). It also called for a fresh tomato sauce blended from 4 tomatoes and some spices and olive oil. I decided to cut way down on the vegetables, use a can of Hunt's fire roasted diced tomatoes with garlic (any canned diced tomatoes will probably work), and top it with grated mozzarella cheese (mostly because I had some in the refrigerator).

So, this is what I came up with. The instructions are revised a little bit from what I actually did to, hopefully, give a little better result. (We liked the taste, but there was too much liquid. Also, it would be nice if the cheese were lightly toasted to be a little bit browner.)

Ingredients
2 Tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1 cup chopped onion
1 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano, crumbled (grind it between the palms of your hands)
2 carrots, sliced diagonally
1/2 eggplant, sliced then cut into quarters or sixth's
1 zucchini, sliced
1 red bell pepper, cut into chunks
1 14 1/2 oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup shredded mozzarella

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Cut the vegetables, separate the onions in one bowl, the carrots in a second bowl and set aside the rest in a third bowl.

2. Heat the olive oil, garlic and onions in a 2 quart Corning Ware pan over medium-high heat until they start to sizzle. Add the basil and oregano and sauté for 1 minute.

3. Add the carrots, stir and sauté for 2 minutes.

4. Add the rest of the fresh vegetables and sauté for another 2 minutes.

Saute vegetables with olive oil and spices

 



5. Add the can of diced tomatoes, heat to a boil and boil for about 2-3 minutes to reduce most of the liquid.

Simmer vegetables to reduce liquid

 

6. Put the pan in the oven and bake the vegetables for 10 minutes.

 

Sprinkle the mozzarella over the partly baked vegetables

 

7. Return the pan to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cheese is melted and lightly browned.

Eggplant bake with melted cheese

 

8. Serve and enjoy. Sprinkle with parmesan if you like. The recipe makes about 8 servings as a side dish.

 

We both thought it tasted good, but had too much liquid, so I've revised the method a little bit. Now I need to eat the results (which won't be hard) and test the new method.

 

Happy cooking!