Italian Stuffed Eggplant with Ground Veal
Italian Stuffed eggplant with ground veal can be a great lunch or dinner. With or without a topping of mozzarella cheese, veal loves eggplant.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- For Eggplant
- 2 eggplants
- sea salt
- olive oil for brushing
Veal or Ground Beef
- 1 pound ground veal or ground meat of choice
- 1 teaspoon seasalt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1/2 cup chopped basil
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 1/3 cup grated pecorino romano or freshly grated parmesan I tend to use both
- 1 teaspoon fennel powder Order Here can use 1/4 t fennel seeds or skip
- 1 egg
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
For Eggplant
- 2 tablespoons tomato sauce optional
- 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
- 1 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
Roast Eggplant
- Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Rinse eggplant and dry with clean towel.
- Cut eggplant lengthwise. Leave stems on.
- Score eggplant in cross hatch pattern, making sure not to cut into skin.
- Season with salt. Brush with olive oil.
- Place face down on baking sheet.
- Bake eggplant for 20 minutes. Check to see how done it it. This will all depend on size. I baked mine for 30 minutes.
- While eggplant is baking, cook veal.
For Ground Veal or Ground Meat
- Loosen veal with hands. Season with salt and pepper. Pour milk over. Let it soak In.
- Mix in herbs, spices and egg.
- In large frying pan, saute onion for five minutes until softened, but not browned. Add garlic, and be careful not to brown.
- Add ground meat, making sure to break apart and cook on low until meat is cooked through, continuing to stir.
- Take eggplant out of the oven. Cool for a few minutes.
- Scoop out all insides of the eggplant, carefully, so as to not break the skin.
- If there is excess water in the baking dish, use paper towel to sop up.
- Add eggplant in to the ground meet.
- Top with tomato sauce, which is optional.
- Top with some mozzarella cheese.
- Bake for ten minutes or until cheese is melted.
- Serve with grated parmesan cheese.
- Active Prep time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
Notes
I usually use a mixture of parmesan cheese and pecorino romano. The pecorino is a sheep's cheese, more tangy and salty. Parmesan is a cow's milk cheese. Only use high quality.