This recipe and photo was submitted by a CSA Member Melanie W. Thanks, Melanie for sharing your grandmothers recipe with us! How special! Do you have a recipe you'd like to share? Email us, making sure to include a high-quality photo of the dish. Protip: Use natural light to photograph your food for the best results! 

Gramma Santi’s Italian Stuffed Eggplant

This is what I made last night. So delicious that I thought I’d share the recipe. It’s my little Italian grandmother’s recipe, and she never measured anything, so the directions are imprecise.

All my cousins called her Nona Dora, but to my brothers and I, she was simply Gramma. She lived with my family during my growing up years, so it was a normal occurrence to come home to homemade pasta drying on the back of kitchen chairs. She called them noodles. Spaghetti sauce was gravy. And eggplant was one of our favorites. Beautiful stuffed eggplant.

Gramma Santi was an amazing cook. She fed her family and friends, and during the Depression, her neighborhood. Dora had a way of making simple ingredients go a long way, and in her own words, "I don't waste nuttin".

 

EGGPLANT PREP

2 large eggplants, or a bunch of little ones

Slice eggplant lengthwise, put cut side down on oiled or spray oiled parchment paper in a 400 degree oven.

Cook until fork tender.

Cool.

Scoop out flesh, leaving enough of the side wall so that eggplant can hold stuffing.

STUFFING PREP

1 clove garlic, minced 2 tomatoes, diced 1 small onion, minced 1/2 of a bunch of parsley

Actually, I just put in however much of these ingredients I have on hand. If the mixture is too juicy, I let it drain in a strainer for a while. You’re going to add bread crumbs and eggplant so it kind of depends on the size of the eggplants you’re working with and how juicy the tomatoes are, etc.

Cut up the (cooked) flesh of the eggplant. Leave it chunky. Mix it into the stuffing mixture.

Add enough breadcrumbs so the mixture holds together, but not so much that it becomes mushy.

I use Panko. Gramma made her own breadcrumbs. If you make your own, don’t use soft breadcrumbs. Bake them in the oven so they are dried out first.

Spoon stuffing mixture into eggplant shells. Don’t pack it in, just kind of spoon it in so it’s got some room to breathe while it’s cooking.

Drizzle with olive oil.

Bake until the tops are crispy brown and the insides are heated throughout.