Eggplant and Tomato Bake

This dish is one of my all time favourite meals and made even better by freshly grown produce delivered by a friend.

Raw ingredients,  just picked and straight from the farm. There was no better way to use them than this eggplant bake. Thank you, James.

It is a great dish to serve to vegetarians, all that is needed is a fresh green salad and maybe some thick crusty bread.














This amount will serve four people and I used a a rectangular dish 24cm x 16 cm and 6 cm deep. I sometimes make this with stewed tomatoes that I make and store in the freezer.

As you can see, it is quite a soft/wet mixture and a bit difficult to serve.









As with many of my recipes, it is a guide, you may need more or less of the ingredients depending on the size of your dish and how many people you need to serve. This is a layered dish, similar to lasagne. I only ever make two layers of eggplant but if you like more layers slice the the eggplant into 1 cm slices and divide the tomato sauce and cheese into thirds.

Eggplant and Tomato Bake

Ingredients

6 med/large eggplant

1kg stewed tomatoes or 2 large tins chopped tomatoes

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 onion

1 tablespoon pesto or to your taste

1 ball mozzarella, sliced into thin slices or grated

Grated parmesan

Oil for frying

Optional

Breadcrumbs

Method

Slice eggplant into 2 cm thick slices, sprinkle with salt and stand for ten minutes or so. Rinse and pat dry with paper towels.

Shallow fry the eggplant slices until golden brown. I then give them a minute or so in the microwave to soften further.

Make tomato sauce by dicing onion and tomatoes and simmering in shallow pan until thick. Add pesto and some freshly ground black pepper.

To assemble

Place a layer of tomato sauce in the bottom of an oven proof dish.

Cover with a layer of eggplant, then another layer of tomato sauce and half the mozzarella.

Add another layer of egg plant, top with remaining mozzarella and parmesan.

Scatter some breadcrumbs over the surface if using them.

Bake at 160 deg C until hot, bubbling and golden brown