Cupboard Stuffed Eggplant

I've got eggplant on the brain. Pretty, pretty eggplant. I always seem to grill it, because grilled eggplant is awesome, but tonight I decided to stuff it . . . with ingredients that happened to be in my cupboard. Because I'm getting ready to move and am trying to clear out the kitchen. It was all very scientific. Improvised recipe after the jump:


Cupboard Stuffed Eggplant

1 large eggplant
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 large shallot (what I had on hand, a small onion would work too)
~1 c. cooked rice (1/2 c. uncooked or thereabouts)
1/2 c. pine nuts
1 can chopped tomatoes, drained (or a couple chopped fresh ones)
1 egg
~1/3 c. parmesan cheese, shredded
~1/3 c. panko bread crumbs
4-5 tbl. olive oil
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350F and cook the rice.

Fry the pine nuts in a couple tbl of olive oil for about 3 min. Drain and set aside in a large bowl.

Cut eggplant in half lengthwise and scoop out the center with a teaspoon (or fancypants melon baller), leaving about 1/3" of the flesh along the edges/bottom. Lightly oil the bottoms of the eggplant shells and place in a baking dish. Chop the eggplant innards and set aside.

Heat a couple tbl. of olive oil in a large skillet over med-high heat. Cook the onion until it becomes translucent and starts to brown, ~ 4 min. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, ~30 sec. Add eggplant innards, drained tomatoes, and salt & pepper. Stir and cook covered until eggplant is tender, ~10 min.

While eggplant mixture is cooking, mix together pine nuts, rice, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, and 1 egg.

Stir in eggplant tomato mixture when done. Season liberally with salt and pepper.

Stuff eggplant shells with mixture. Mound it high--the egg works as a binder to keep it all together.

Baked stuffed eggplant at 350F for 30 min.

As it turns out, cupboard stuffed eggplant was pretty tasty. It had a nice zip to it. Lovely Carnivorous Boyfriend liked it as well. He enjoyed the way the eggplant flavor was highlighted instead of hidden, as it can be in something like eggplant parm. I highly recommend that everyone try stuffing eggplants with the contents of their pantries.