Photos by Julia Laxer
This exceptionally easy, cheesy eggplant treat works great as either a tasty side dish, first course or as a light main.
It captures many of the flavours of eggplant parmesan with much less effort!
The ingredient list is very short:
Eggplant
Tomato
Mozzarella ball
Parmesan cheese (the good stuff, not some pre-shredded Kraft crap)
Fresh basil
Sea salt
Olive oil
To start, cut your eggplants into 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick round slices.
Cover a shallow rimmed baked dish with aluminum foil and brush the foil evenly with some olive oil.
Place the eggplant slices down and salt them liberally. Flip, salt them some more and drizzle some more olive oil over them.
Place in an oven preheated to 400 degrees.
Cook the eggplant for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven, keeping the oven heated at 400, and top the eggplant first with a slice of fresh tomato, then a slice of the mozzarella ball (around a 1/4 inch) and finally grate some fresh parmesan over top very liberally.
Place back into the oven and cook until cheese is getting well melted, which will take around 5 or 6 minutes.
Remove from oven and place the rack in the top oven position setting the oven to broil.
Place back into the oven and broil the cheese topping 2-3 minutes or until browned to your liking.
Remove from oven, let sit for 2-3 minutes, top with some fresh basil and serve.
Absolutely delicious especially with some red wine.
Enjoy.