Do you love Italian food? Then try this rather simple dish that combines classic Italian ingredients perfectly.
In this recipe, you can use any meat you want (lamb, veal, chicken, turkey), or use a combination of several types, for example, lamb + turkey or veal + chicken.
You'll need:
- 4 eggplants;
- 400-450 grams of any boneless meat;
- 1 large or 2 medium onions;
- a clove of garlic;
- Seasoning "Provencal herbs" or "Italian cuisine" (to taste);
- 2 teaspoons of soy sauce;
- 100-130 grams of cheese (of your choice);
- 100 grams of 9% cream yoghurt (or 3% milk) without additives;
- 2-3 ground tomatoes of medium size;
- 10-12 pickled olives;
- any seasoning for meat (to taste);
- black and / or allspice (to taste);
- salt;
- any aromatic herbs of your choice (dill, basil and others);
- unrefined sunflower or olive oil
Preparation
Step 1. Wash the meat, dry it with a napkin. Peel the onion. Cut everything into small pieces, pass through a meat grinder with large holes. Season with salt and pepper, add a little seasoning for the meat, stir. Refrigerate for one hour.
Use a seasoning appropriate for the type of meat. For minced poultry, a mixture containing turmeric works well.
Step 2. Pour about 500 ml of cold water into a large bowl, add a quarter teaspoon of salt and stir. Wash the eggplants, remove the stalk, cut in half and place in a bowl of salt water for 15 minutes (to remove the bitterness).
Step 3. Peel the garlic, crush with a knife and chop very finely. Combine in a bowl with pepper, salt, Provencal herbs, vegetable oil and soy sauce.
Step 4. Slightly squeeze the eggplants and rub with the resulting mixture, stand for five minutes. During this time, prepare a baking sheet or baking dish (you can lightly grease the inside with butter). Put the eggplants in an even layer, with the skins down, and bake in the oven at 200 degrees until tender (30-40 minutes).
To make the eggplants bake faster, cover them with foil for the first 15-20 minutes, then remove it and bake for another 10 minutes. After baking, you can mash them a little with a fork or cut into slices.
Step 5. Heat a frying pan with vegetable oil and fry the minced meat over low heat with constant stirring. Bring the minced meat to readiness, but do not overdo it: the minced meat should turn out to be slightly toasted, juicy and crumbly.
Step 6. Wash the aromatic herbs, dry with a napkin and chop finely.
Step 7. Grate cheese, mix with yogurt. Add chopped herbs (to taste).
Step 8. Wash and dry the tomatoes. Cut into slices about 5-6 mm thick and brown a little on both sides.
Step 9. Put the fried minced meat and tomatoes on the eggplants, on top with an even layer of a mixture of cheese and yogurt. Reduce the temperature in the oven to 110-120 degrees and let the dish simmer for 10 minutes (preferably using convection). During this time, the cheese will melt and form a thick white sauce.
Step 10. Arrange the finished dish on plates, garnish with herbs and chopped slices of olives. Additionally, you can serve any sauce, for example, Passata di pomodoro, pesto, etc.
