I’ve known this recipe since I was a child, but honestly, I don’t know its real name. Browsing through Google, the most similar recipe I found is ‘Cilento-style eggplants’, but my grandmother was Sicilian. Then my neighbor calls them ‘husband and wife eggplants’, but the real ‘husband and wife’ have a different filling. Someone else calls them ‘buttoned eggplants’, and in my family, we’ve always called them in dialect “molongiane ca porpetta” (eggplants with bread meatballs). The fact is they are delicious, and today I will call them stuffed eggplants in tomato sauce, and I recommend you try them. They are an eggplant sandwich stuffed with a bread meatball. One of the many family recipes I love.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Rest time: 10 Minutes
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Slow cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Summer
Ingredients
- 8 slices eggplant
- 3 eggs
- 2/3 cup coarse breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup grated Grana Padano
- 2 leaves mint
- 1 bunch parsley
- 4 leaves basil
- 1 3/4 cup tomato puree
- 1 clove garlic
- salt
- extra virgin olive oil
- sunflower oil (for frying)
Tools
- Frying pan
Steps
Take an eggplant, wash it, remove the two ends, and cut 8 slices about 0.4 inches thick. Salt them and let them rest for about ten minutes. In the meantime, prepare the stuffing mixture. In a bowl, mix the coarse breadcrumbs, cheese, chopped mint, chopped parsley, a pinch of salt, and the eggs. Then mix everything well until you get an easily workable dough.
Lightly press the eggplants and rinse them under a stream of cold water, then pat them dry with kitchen paper. Take a slice, spread a good spoonful of the mixture on it, then close it like a sandwich with another eggplant slice.
Repeat the operation to form 4 pairs.
Heat the sunflower oil, or any other frying oil you like, in a pan and fry the paired eggplants for a couple of minutes per side. They should be slightly golden. Once ready, take them out of the pan and place them on a plate with kitchen paper to remove excess oil. Clean the pan, then pour a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil into it, and add a peeled garlic clove. Sauté for just a few seconds and pour over the tomato puree and cover with a lid. As soon as the puree starts to sizzle, put in the previously fried eggplants. Cover and cook on low heat for 15 minutes. If the sauce is too thick, thin it with a few tablespoons of water.
After the time is up, add the basil leaves, adjust the salt, and cook just one more minute. Then turn off the heat and serve the stuffed eggplants in tomato sauce on the table.
Tips
They are also delicious when eaten cold (at room temperature).
The leftover sauce is excellent for dressing pasta.
