Sicilian Baked Eggplants
I’m experiencing a different kind of seasonal transition than what I’m accustomed to. Until this year, travel aside, I’d spent my entire life in Melbourne, in a temperate climate where by April, autumn had a firm icy grip, where I’d have begun to wear jeans and a jumper by now and at night be sleeping under a layer of thick blankets to keep the cold at bay.
In Brisbane, the days are yet to drop below 30C and the humidity is hovering around 70%. I’m still sleeping under a whirring ceiling fan. I’m longing to feel a chill in the air, although there is an upside to my personal climate change, autumn produce is still plentiful, good and cheap. Eggplants, tomatoes and red capsicums are sitting cheek by jowl with celeriac, kohlrabi, and chard in the greengrocer’s display, an unexpected bonus.
This wonderfully simple but robust eggplant recipe landed into my FB feed from ”Dish” magazine, a terrific publication out of New Zealand to which I subscribe. It’s typical of the recipes they publish, big on achievable wow factor in the taste stakes and most importantly for me, easily adapted to dietary restrictions.
Sicilian Baked Eggplants
2 large firm eggplants, the purple oval variety
4 large ripe tomatoes, sliced
1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 teaspoons oregano
1/4 cup robust olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
topping:
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
2 tablespoons roasted pine nuts
2 tablespoons capers
zest of 1 large lemon
2 tablespoons snipped chives
to serve:
1 cup thick natural yoghurt
Preheat oven to 170C fan forced. Line a shallow ovenproof dish with baking paper.
Wash the eggplants and cut in half lengthwise, then lay them flat side down and slit each half lengthwise into 5 thick pieces leaving them at the stem end.
Lay the eggplant halves, skin side down on the baking tray and fan out the slices. Season the eggplant fans with salt, pepper and oregano.
Lay a sliced tomato on top of each.
Whisk together the oil, vinegar and sugar until the sugar is dissolved, then spoon over the eggplants.
Bake for about 1 hour, basting with juices every 15 minutes. The eggplants should be very soft and the juices well caramelised.
Allow to rest for 30 minutes.
Mix together the topping ingredients.
Dollop thick yoghurt over the eggplants then scatter over the topping.
Serve with crusty sourdough and greens.
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46 comments on “Sicilian Baked Eggplants”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
Guess who is having Sicillian baked eggplant tonight 😛 Oh Yeah!
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Me! Hope you enjoy your dinner, mine was delicious..
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I’m trying to persuade the G.O. of the deliciousness of eggplant. I’ll try this as a side. Thanks for the tip on Dish, the last thing I need is more emails but the website look so good I signed up.
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Thanks Dale, a little eggplant as a side dish might just tempt him. The recipes in”Dish” are super user friendly and mostly very tempting. i hope you enjoy it as much as I do
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I enjoy eggplant and this sounds like a new and delicious way of eating it. I’m so glad you shared the recipe.
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It’s a really tasty dish Karen, enjoy…
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Gorgeous!
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Wonderful! My husband will love this!
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The eggplant really is the hero of this dish, enjoy…
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I made it on the weekend but put my own spin on it…..great dish!
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Glad you liked it, what did you do?
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I’ll write it up but added ricotta and basil, no capers
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They look delicious Sandra. I saw some decent looking eggplant in the grocery on Sunday and thought I must get out my recipes and see what I can make with them, and this looks just the ticket. Am finally feeling well enough to want to think about cooking again, instead of just surviving 🙂
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Pleased to hear you have shaken off your lurgy Ardys. I blame the recycled air on airlines for spreading bacteria/virus. I always seems to get sick after a long haul flight. The eggplant recipe was a great success here
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This looks just fantastic!!!
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Thanks Shy….
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Reblogged this on Chef Ceaser.
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Oh my god those look good!!! I will go buy eggplants ASAP!!!
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It’s a delicious dish Mimi, enjoy….
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These look fantastic!!
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Thanks Sabrina, they were delicious tasting too
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What a beautiful vibrant dish Sandra! Love these Mediterranean flavours all brought together. Love a Queensland winter… really quite envious of you!
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Hah, we humans are never happy, esp when it comes to the weather. I’m amazed how cool 25C feels. The eggplants were fabulous, just bought some more to make this dish again
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Sounds as gorgeous as it looks. I’ll enjoy trying this.
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Enjoy…..
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As eggplant is one of my fave vegetables and stuffing my usual way to prepare I am SO glad for this interesting recipe and shall look up the link also! I have usually used an old Charmaine Solomon recipe from her East/West Vegetarian book of eons ago – but this is so much more rich and imaginative dear Charmaine may just find herself on the bottom pile of beloved recipes 🙂 ! Oh, I always have to put my heatbank on by mid-March at the latest [and that is it for the winter till Oct-Nov] . . . at the moment I am still sailing along with no heating tho’ a nightgown has had to be fished out of the drawer 🙂 ! Electricity bill . . . yikes and wonderful!!
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Who said there was no global warming? Enjoy the eggplants….
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Sandra, that looks like an impressionist painting exploding on to the canvas.
Beautiful.
Best,
Conor
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Aw thanks Conor. It was an attractive dish and I had fun messing around with the horizontal arm on my new tripod combined with tethering the camera directly to the laptop. Always something to learn….
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What a delicious combination!
(You may not want to know that we are having those beautiful Melbourne autumn days at the moment…..)
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It’s simple to prepare and really delicious Anne, enjoy Melbourne’s gorgeous autumn
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Love a bit of stuffed eggplant, never thought to dollop yoghurt over! Yum!
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Yoghurt and eggplant is delicious together, the acidity helps cut the (delicious) oiliness,
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Those look fantastic!
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Thanks Claudia,
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Yup, I’ll try this one, and we’ll have some Puglian red wine with it.
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The wine will be a perfect match with the eggplants, enjoy….
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Lovely, just a bit like a caponata encased in the fruit.
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Dare I say better…..
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Looks gorgeous! I didn’t know you had relocated to Brisbane, Sandra. Welocme! How wonderful for me to know another Brisie blogger. I’ve got heaps of eggplants in my vegetable garden to make this recipe. Thanks for sharing. margaret
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Hi Margaret, we moved about 6 months ago, family beckoned. This is a terrific eggplant recipe, to serve as a side dish or a light vego meal. It will be beautiful made with produce from your garden, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did….
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This looks amazing! I love eggplants. 🙂
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Thanks Jhuls, I love eggplants too, they meld well with so many different flavours
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