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Have Day-Old Bread? Try This Stunningly Simple Stuffed Eggplant Recipe
My mom's mom, Nonna Adriana, used to make us this dish all the time. She was a master of letting nothing go to waste and taught me just how tasty a piece of stale bread could be as a snack when drizzled with good olive oil and a pinch of salt—or when stuffed into eggplant with capers and olives, like I do here. As all those flavors meld together, they really do become more than the sum of their parts. This simple dish is not only supremely delicious the day it's made, but it's also really good cold.
Melanzane A Scarpone
Serves 8
Ingredients
- 4 small firm eggplants
- 2 slices day-old Italian bread (about 3½ ounces), chopped or torn into ½-inch pieces
- 2 plum tomatoes, diced
- ⅓ cup pitted Kalamata or Gaeta olives, chopped
- 2 ounces scamorza, smoked mozzarella, or low-moisture mozzarella, diced
- ¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons freshly grated
- Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
- ¼ cup fresh Italian parsley leaves, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 4 to 5 fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and drained
- Kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons plain bread crumbs
Directions
- Halve the eggplants lengthwise and use a large spoon to scoop out most of the flesh. You want to leave behind just enough of the insides to create a "shell" that won't fall apart after roasting. Finely chop the eggplant flesh and add it to a large bowl.
- To the chopped eggplant, add the bread, tomatoes, olives, scamorza, ¼ cup of the Parm, the parsley, oil, basil, garlic, capers, and a pinch of salt. Mix well to combine and allow the mixture to sit for 10 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Place the eggplant "shells" in a roasting pan, cut-side up. Fill each half with the filling—packing it in really well. Evenly sprinkle with the bread crumbs and the remaining 3 tablespoons Parm. Give each eggplant half a drizzle of olive oil and bake until golden brown and the filling feels firm when pressed, about 1 hour. If desired, switch to broil for the last minute or so to get the bread crumbs deeply browned and crispy.
Reprinted with permission from At My Italian Table by Laura Vitale, copyright © 2024. Photographs by Lauren Volo. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
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