Stuffed Tomatoes with Meat and Eggplant
Ingredients
8 larger tomatoes (about 200-250g each)
salt, sugar
Meat and Eggplant Filling
400g ground meat (beef, lamb, or mixed beef+pork)
1 roasted eggplant
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons tomato paste
100ml red wine
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch ground cloves (or ground allspice)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 bunch parsley
10 mint leaves (or basil)
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt, black pepper
1 portion bechamel sauce
70g hard cheese (Horezu or Kefalotyri; or kashkaval)
Servings: 4
How to prepare stuffed tomatoes with meat and eggplant
- Roast the eggplant and scoop out the flesh following the instructions here. If you have pre-roasted and cleaned eggplant, weigh out 150g of flesh. Chop the flesh as you would for eggplant salad.
- Cut a cap from each tomato at the stem end. With a knife, cut out the hard area from the center (photo 1; this part is discarded). Then cut out as much as you can from the center of the tomato (photo 2). With a teaspoon, clean the inside of the tomato of the watery pulp with seeds (photo 3). Clean the inside well, leaving only the walls untouched. Sprinkle each tomato inside with a pinch of salt and one of sugar. Place on a plate cut-side down to drain excess juice.
* what I cleaned from the tomato is not used in this recipe, I blended it and drank it - Heat the oil in a wide pan and sauté the chopped onion until soft (about 5 minutes). Add the crushed garlic and sauté for 1 more minute.
- Add the ground meat and sauté over high heat, stirring frequently, until it changes color throughout and if desired, you can even let it brown a bit.
- Make room in the center and add the tomato paste. Fry the paste for about 2 minutes, then mix it with the meat, adding the wine, oregano, cinnamon, and cloves. Season with salt and black pepper. Cook until the wine evaporates.
- Add the eggplant flesh over the meat and mix. Add the chopped herbs, reserving 1 teaspoon.
- Fill the tomatoes with the meat and eggplant mixture, leaving a little space for sauce. Place the tomatoes in an oven-safe dish. Pour a little water on the bottom of the dish (about 1 finger deep).
- Prepare the bechamel sauce following the instructions here. Season the sauce with a pinch of ground nutmeg. After removing the sauce from heat, grate the cheese and stir until melted.
- Place about 2 tablespoons of sauce over the meat. Sprinkle with the reserved herbs. Place the caps back on the tomatoes. Drizzle olive oil over the tomatoes.
- Bake at 200°C for approximately 50 minutes, until the tomatoes look cooked, with wrinkled skin and the bechamel slightly browned on top.
- Serve the stuffed tomatoes warm.
Cut out the core
Cut out even more
Clean the inside with a teaspoon
Meat and eggplant filling
Fill the tomatoes with meat
Add bechamel sauce on top and sprinkle with herbs
Put the lids back on
Stuffed Tomatoes with Meat and Eggplant
