Baked eggplants pizzaiola-style: three ingredients for a light vegetarian main course, quick, easy and tasty. Like the eggplant rolls pizzaiola-style, this recipe is also part of our Quick recipes with eggplants collection: it’s easy, economical and very flavorful and is perfect as a last-minute dinner saver when you don’t know what to put on the table. Summer eggplant recipes are always well received; this versatile and inexpensive vegetable always allows tasty preparations with very little stress, and the eggplants pizzaiola with mozzarella and tomato fully fit the category. To make this flavorful dish I essentially used three ingredients: tomato sauce, stretched-curd cheese and eggplants. I didn’t fry anything — I baked everything in the oven — and the result was similar to what you would get making a parmigiana without frying. Let’s go to the kitchen and prepare baked eggplants with mozzarella and tomato pizzaiola-style together — you’ll see how delicious they are. But first, as always, I remind you that if you want to stay updated on all my other recipes you can follow my Facebook page and my Instagram profile.
Do you love tasty eggplant recipes? Take a look:
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very economical
- Rest time: 5 Minutes
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer and Autumn
Ingredients
- 2 eggplants (large)
- 400 14 oz (about 1 2/3 cups) chopped tomatoes (chunky)
- 300 10.6 oz mozzarella for pizza (or a stretched-curd cheese like galbanino or provola)
- to taste salt
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pinch oregano
Tools
- Baking dish
- Pan
Preparation
Rinse the eggplants, remove the stem, peel them and slice into rounds just under 3/8 inch thick (about 0.39 in).
Place the slices on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, drizzle a little oil and use a pastry brush to spread it on both sides.
Sprinkle with salt and bake in a convection oven at 392°F under the broiler for 15 minutes, turning halfway through.
Cook the tomato sauce until it reduces and season with salt, oil and basil. Arrange the first slices in a baking dish, spreading a little tomato sauce on each slice.
A slice of cheese and then another eggplant slice. Repeat alternating layers until the ingredients are used up. I made 6 portions with 4 eggplant slices and 3 cheese slices each. Finish each portion with tomato sauce, cheese cubes and a sprinkle of oregano.
Return to a preheated oven at 392°F for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and serve. The pizzaiola-style eggplants are delicious hot right out of the oven, but also good at room temperature. You can also prepare them in advance and reheat them briefly in the oven just before serving.
Storage, tips and variations
You can add ham, a slice of hard-boiled egg and grated Parmesan to the pizzaiola eggplants to make something close to baked parmigiana. The pizzaiola eggplants keep in the fridge for 48 hours if stored well in an airtight container and should be reheated slightly before eating.
