I’ve been on a garlic kick lately, which isn’t the easiest kick to navigate. Since I’m in close contact with my Jiu-Jitsu brothers and sisters Tuesday evenings, I limit my garlic and onion intake to just a few days per week. But what a few days they are. If you enjoy Italian food, you most likely have an affinity for garlic too. Which is great because garlic is super healthy. There have been many “inconclusive” but encouraging studies on the health benefits of garlic, from it increasing testosterone in males, flushing toxins from the liver, reducing the length and severity of the common cold, offering multiple vitamins and minerals, lowering blood pressure, and much more. But really, this post isn’t just about garlic. It’s much more about an incredible dish I found in the Complete Cookbook by Mary Berry.
The Recipe
What a straightforward and incredibly fun dish to prepare. There aren’t many ingredients involved and I can assure you that you likely haven’t tried something like it before. If you bake an eggplant in the oven, that eggplant becomes soft and develops a wonderful flavor. It sort of shrivels up like a raisin, but not nearly as extreme. If you slice parts of the eggplant before baking, you can stuff garlic, herbs, and cheese into those slices, which will infuse the eggplant with their flavors. That’s what we’ve got here. As you can see from the above photo, I placed some slices across the top of each eggplant and then stuffed the slices with chopped garlic, parsley, basil, and two types of cheese. I then sprinkled some additional cheese across the surface of each eggplant and baked them for a while. I was surprised at how delicious the eggplants appeared when I removed them from the oven. And the smell in the house while baking! Out of this world. There’s nothing like a home filled with something delicious baking in the oven.
Ingredients
Serves: 4
1/4 Cup Parsley, Chopped
2 Tablespoons Fresh Basil, Chopped
1/4 Cup Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon Salt
2-3 Medium Sized Eggplants
6 Garlic Cloves, Minced
6 Ounces Blue Cheese, Crumbled
6 Ounces Mozzarella Cheese, Shredded
Pre-Heat Oven
Arrange an oven rack so it’s in the center position. Then, pre-heat your oven to 350°.
Mix Herbs & Olive Oil
In a medium sized bowl, combine half the parsley, basil, olive oil, salt, and garlic. Mix well.
Stuff the Eggplants
Slice each eggplant about half way through, multiple times. Refer to my photo below. Then, place them in an oven-safe dish and divide the contents of the bowl between each slice; be sure to really stuff all of the garlic and herbs down into the slits. If you have extra olive oil in the bowl when finished, drizzle it over the eggplants.
Bake the Eggplant
Place the dish into the oven for 50 minutes. After this time, the eggplants should be very tender and somewhat shriveled looking. Remove the dish from the oven.
Sprinkle both types of cheese over each eggplant. Try to get some cheese into the slices as well. Then, return the dish to the oven for 5-10 minutes to melt the cheese. If you would like some brown on the cheese for looks, you can broil the eggplant for a few minutes as well.
Plate & Serve
When the cheese is finished melting, remove the dish from the oven and sprinkle the remaining parsley over everything. Then cut into individual portions, plate, and serve. Enjoy!
Leave a Reply