| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 20 min |
| Prep: | 10 min |
| Cook: | 10 min |
| Yield: | 2 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 eggplant
- 3 plum tomatoes
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon capers
- 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
- 4 basil leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
- Cut the eggplant in half and scoop out the flesh. Set eggplant halves aside. Cut flesh into bite sized cubes. Chop the tomatoes and slice the garlic.
- In a large saute pan, heat the oil and add the garlic. When the garlic is golden brown, add the chopped eggplant and saute for 3 minutes. Remove the eggplant and place in a large bowl. To the bowl, add the uncooked tomatoes and capers. Mix until combined.
- In a baking dish, place the reserved eggplant halves and fill with the eggplant/tomato mixture. Sprinkle with Parmesan.
- Place baking dish in the oven and cook for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and garnish with fresh basil.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 2 servings |
| Calories | 166 |
| Total Fat | 9 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Carbohydrates | 20 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 9 g |
| Sugar | 12 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Cholesterol | 3 mg |
| Sodium | 108 mg |
Reviews
After reading the other reviews I guessed that the temperature of the oven was wrong. They probably used a very hot oven, probably a pizza oven at 300C not F. So I decided to use my grill with my pizza stone on it. I heated the grill with the stone to 500F. Baked the two empty eggplant shells for about 10 minutes in it before adding the filling and only after that added the filling, the Parmesan ( which I used much more thsn1 spoon) and took it back to the grill for 10 more minutes with the grill covered. It was super delicious!
For me, the oven temperature of 300 for ten minutes did not even melt the cheese or warm the tomatoes. I believe that the tomatoes should be peeled as well as chopped. The filling needs more seasoning. This “easy” recipe bombed!
The cooking time/temp was all wrong, I wish the would fix recipes when they have an obvious error in them and many people have commented about it. Unfortunately, my boyfriend and I were each making our own meals for dinner (we have a few favorite foods that the other one strongly dislikes) so the cooking time for mine definitely threw off our meal. I ended up just eating the filling since the outside was taking too long. I would eat it again if I pre-baked the outside, but I think I’ll probably try a different recipe.
I used a long, skinny eggplant as shown, but baked it at 400 for about 20 minutes. When I sauteed the garlic, I also threw in about 1 tsp of finely chopped red jalapeno since I had it on hand. When I filled the eggplant shells before baking, I also mixed in some finely chopped basil, salt and pepper.
I had great expectations for this recipe. It was average.
The only change I made to this recipe was to pre-bake the eggplant shells. I sprayed a little olive oil spray on the eggplant shells and baked them at 400 for 17 minutes. I then stuffed them with the mixture and baked for 10 min at 400. I did not want to over cook the mixture and dry out the fresh flavors. I also watched the show – I think the info on cooking times and temps was incorrect. If you cook these veggies at 300 (low temp) you are just drying out the mixture. I think the conversion of temp to American cooking was lost in translation. There is no way after 10 min at 300 the eggplant will cook and look like it did on the show. Pre cooking the eggplant shells really did the trick.
The filling was great but the shell of the eggplant never cooked. I baked it at 300 for 10 min and hard as a rock, 10 min more, same. I turned up to 425 and added 10 min , not much change so at that point I added a little mozz. cheese on top instead of parmesan and baked it until the cheese melted. The eggplant body was still firm. On TV it looked all collapsed and very soft and well done, but the filling was great and I will try this again!
The idea is good, but after reading other reviews about it being bland I decided to add some ingredients. Along with the eggplant I added cut up banana peppers with the seeds removed (2), extra garlic, sliced green onions and sliced green olives instead of the capers and sauteed those altogether. You can adjust the onions, garlic and onions to your own taste. After sauteing I added the tomatoes and about 1/2 cup parmesan cheese. I baked it at 350 degrees for about 45 min. Then about 15 min. before it was done I grated more parmesan cheese to cover the top and put it back in and finished baking. I didn’t cover it at all. It was wonderful and full of flavor. My husband loved it.
The recipe itself is super simple. -However to make it taste a tad bit better than ‘SIMPLE’… would recommend a couple of adjustments:
1.) Heat oven at higher temp (ex: ~400 deg F), -and cook longer than the 10 mins. listed. (I cooked it according to temp/time given, and had to cook MUCH longer at 300; finally gave up and upped the heat to 400, -still took another 15 minutes, at least.) At 300 it will take the better part of an hour to cook to doneness, if not longer.
2.) Salt the ingredients (to taste).
and/or…
3.) *Most importantly: Use more Parmesan than listed in recipe! …Say maybe _several-times_ as much! (But then I’m a cheese freak.) But there’s NO WAY that 1 Tbsp is anywhere near enough! If you up the cheese the salt is less of a necessity.
As stated by the Food Network folks at the bottom of the recipe, they didn’t take the time to ‘test’ it themselves before posting the recipe, so you’ll have to tweak it to make it work properly, and in less time. Fortunately this recipe is easy enough to fix if you find it too bland.
1.) Heat oven at higher temp (ex: ~400 deg F), -and cook longer than the 10 mins. listed. (I cooked it according to temp/time given, and had to cook MUCH longer at 300; finally gave up and upped the heat to 400, -still took another 15 minutes, at least.) At 300 it will take the better part of an hour to cook to doneness, if not longer.
2.) Salt the ingredients (to taste).
and/or…
3.) *Most importantly: Use more Parmesan than listed in recipe! …Say maybe _several-times_ as much! (But then I’m a cheese freak.) But there’s NO WAY that 1 Tbsp is anywhere near enough! If you up the cheese the salt is less of a necessity.
As stated by the Food Network folks at the bottom of the recipe, they didn’t take the time to ‘test’ it themselves before posting the recipe, so you’ll have to tweak it to make it work properly, and in less time. Fortunately this recipe is easy enough to fix if you find it too bland.
Used about a 1# eggplant, so I baked it for 30 minutes. The skin still turned out tough and the eggplant was spongy. I did not add salt and pepper as it was not in the recipe. So it was also a little bland. I love eggplant, but haven’t had much luck.