My husband came over by the stove and asked, "So, what did you put inside these boats?" He referred to these as boats the remainder of the night and so I decided to call them stuffed "boats." I got the recipe from Lidia Bastianich's cookbook, Lidia's Italy in America. I changed up the recipe a bit to make a lesser amount and I changed the meat from beef to sausage.
Ingredients:
2 large eggplants
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
3/4 pound ground sausage
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cup cubes of day-old french bread
1/2 cup milk
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 plum tomato, seeded and chopped
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise. Scoop out the flesh to make a shell about 1/2 inch thick. Finely chop the flesh and set aside.
3. Heat 4 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Toss in the onion and cook until it begins to soften, just a few minutes. Add the sausage and crumble it using your cooking utensil. Pour the wine over the meat. Cook, breaking up the sausage until the meat releases juices and then they cook away, about 7-8 minutes. Add the bell pepper and chopped eggplant and season with salt. Cook until vegetables are tender, about ten minutes. Scrape into a medium or large bowl to cool.
4. Pour the milk over the bread cubes in a small bowl. Once the bread has softened, squeeze out the excess milk and put the bread in the bowl with the meat mixture. Add the grated cheese, parsley, and tomatoes and mix well.
5. Put the eggplant shells in a large baking dish and drizzle with the remaining olive oil. Sprinkle with some salt and toss to coat evenly and thoroughly. Fill the eggplants with the mixture and arrange snugly in the baking dish. Cover the dish with foil and bake until eggplant is tender, 40-45 minutes. Uncover and bake until top of filling is browned and crispy, about 10 minutes.
Serves 4.
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