Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Eggplant Casserole with Tomatoes, Mozzarella, and Basil

We got a beautiful eggplant in our CSA box. Hubby almost argued with me by saying it wasn’t an eggplant, but I was able to convince him otherwise. When I saw the eggplant, I first wanted to make a familiar dish: Spicy Baked Eggplant with Wasabi Mayonnaise and Basil. It’s delicious, and I haven’t made it in a long time, but  then I saw all the tomatoes in the CSA box (as well as the ones on our plants and my mother-in-law’s plants) and the mozzarella in the fridge, and I decided to get a bit creative.



Eggplant Casserole with Tomatoes, Mozzarella, and Basil

Ingredients
  • 1 eggplant, sliced
  • 1 tomato, sliced
  • 8 Mozzarella cheese slices, thinly sliced (I could have sliced my mozzarella quite a bit thinner, but I was in a cheesy mood, and it was delicious!)
  • Tomato sauce or marinara sauce, about 3/4 cup
  • Basil, chopped
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Olive oil (I used my Misto spray bottle)
Directions
  1. Sprinkle the eggplant slices with salt and put in a colander and let them drain. After 30 minutes, rinse the eggplant slices and pat them dry with a paper towel. Make sure you rinse the eggplant slices well so that your dish doesn’t end up too salty!
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  3. Spray a casserole dish with olive oil.
  4. Put one layer of eggplant slices into the casserole dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  5. Top the eggplant layer with tomato sauce, tomato slices, and mozzarella cheese slices.
  6. Add another eggplant layer.
  7. Repeat #5 (but I omitted the tomato slices this time)
  8. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 - 55 minutes, until the mozzarella cheese is slightly brown.
  9. Serve and top with chopped basil.

Prep and Cook Time: 1.5 hours (including the “watering” of the eggplant slices)
Servings: About 4



The dish was a bit “soupy” but very tasty. Well, almost anything with melted cheese is yummy, no? I didn’t mind the “soupy” part as I poured it into a cup and ate it like a soup. You could also discard it, but I really don’t know why you would do that! Hubby kept on raving about this dish. He is usually very good about complimenting my food, but the praise was unusual, even for him. Maybe the fact that I haven’t cooked anything in a while had something to do with all his praise…

Questions: Do you like eggplant? If so, what’s your favorite way to eat it? Have you seen any of the “unusual” eggplant varieties?
 
Be well,
Andrea
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19 comments:

  1. oh this looks wonderful! i may have to give it a try :)

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  2. What a cool looking eggplant! I just picked one up at the farmers market and am still deciding on what to make... Maybe this or maybe crispy egg plant rounds. We shall see :)

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  3. Eggplant is the only vegetable that I do not like! Whenever it's in a recipe I substitute zucchini. For instance, I think this recipe would be fab with zucchini!! :)
    Krista

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  4. Andrea, I love eggplant and lately we have been grilling...it is so good. I love the way that you layer the eggplants and topped it with cheese and basil...looks delicious!
    Hope you are having a wonderful week :-)

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  5. I love eggplant but Marshall hates it, so we never have it. This looks delicious and your photos are beautiful!

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  6. I LOVE eggplant. Topping it with melted mozzarella is recipe for heaven! This looks great:)

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  7. I think I am going to make this tomorrow. I have some eggplant that I have no idea what to do with!

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  8. I need to eat eggplant more than I have in the past to decide if I really like it. I am sure, however, smothered in cheese and sauce, I would love it. As long as those tomatoes are cooked, I'll still come for dinner :)

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  9. Yum!!! That looks delicious!!! Yes, we've gotten those type of eggplants in our csa box before. We've also gotten some long slender ones...I think they may be called Japanese Eggplant? Maybe?

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  10. this dish looks fantastic and I'd say it's also my fav way to eat eggplants. Anything that involves tomato sauce, eggplant and cheese would be perfect!!!

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  11. I roast eggplant, recently did with a yogurt/date/cilantro sauce (forget where I got recipe) but it was good. This looks great, total comfort food I think a little zucchini in there would be good too. Love the spouse raves when a dish is good.

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  12. i've made a layered eggplant dish before.

    yours looks moutwatering! No wonder Hubby raved!

    I need to find us some eggplant now!

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  13. I have tried eggplant before, but find it bitter, even salting it and letting it sit. Never seen one look like that before though!

    And yes, everything is better with cheese!

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  14. Yummers! I do like eggplant and lately we have enjoyed it cooked on the BBQ.

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  15. This sounds great! And you came up with this?! So creative, Andrea. I love eggplant, and I love tomatoes and mozzarella. This recipe is right up my alley. I think the skin of the eggplant gives me some stomach issues, so I would definitely cut it off too.

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  16. This looks delicious! Kind of similar to an eggplant parmesan but with tomato. I love grilled eggplant..especially to throw in wraps.
    Although unhealthy, my moms (fried) eggplant parm is to die for. :)

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  17. I have some eggplant in the fridge from my garden I'm think of using tonight. I can't decide what I want to do yet...if I had mozzarella, I'd totally be making this!

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  18. This looks excellent! Copied and pasted for SURE! Great recipe!!

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  19. Oh man, this is one good healthy dish! Love it.
    Kristy

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