Stuffed Aubergines with Fusilli Pasta and Cheese Recipe
I bought for the first time – of course also from the farmers market – white eggplants (aubergines).
I was intrigued by their taste which proved to be a tab more sweet than their purple cousins, and also by their looks. So I decided to stuff them in a vegetarian recipe, inspired a bit by Eggplant Parmesan, throwing in some fusilli pasta for looks – although the green fusillis turned out to be quite hot and spicy – and some Gorgonzola for its spicy kick. And I replaced the Parmesan cheese with Pecorino Romano.
Ingredients (2 persons):
- 2 medium (white) eggplants
- a handful of hazelnuts
- 2-3 tablespoons of butter
- 2-3 tablespoons tomato cubes (canned)
- a few basil leaves
- 100 g fusilli tricolori pasta (3 coloured)
- 75 g Gorgonzola cheese (or other soft blue cheese)
Preparation method:
- Wash the aubergines and cut them in half.
- With the help of a tablespoon scoop out their fleshy inside and chop them roughly.
- Clean the hazelnuts of their shelves and crush them.
- Melt half of the butter in a saucepan and fry for about a minute the hazelnuts.
- Add the other half of butter, the chopped aubergine kernels and the tomato cubes. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Stir-fry for about 5 minutes until golden and add chopped basil.
- Meanwhile cook the fusilli pasta underdone, because they will cook a bit more in the oven.
- Arrange some spinach leaves in the hollowed aubergine halves.
- Scoop over some of the pan-fried mixture then lay a handful of fusilli pasta.
- Smear over each aubergine some Gorgonzola cheese then grate some Pecorino Romano or other pungent hard cheese like Parmigiano, etc.
- Put the stuffed aubergines in an ovenproof dish and place it in a preheated oven (200 C) for about 15 minutes until the cheeses just melted and bubbly.
- Serve them hot from the oven garnished with some spinach leaves, the remaining fusilli pasta and a spoonful of tomato cubes.
It looks yummy, but are the eggplants cooked enough? I think that it would be better to sweet the shells and the bake them upside down for a little. Also, wouldn’t the spinach leaves that come out burn or dry too much? Sorry about all these questions, I am a very fussy cook :-).
But I love the idea of this recipe :-).
Ciao
Alessandra
Yes, the eggplents were cooked through, but you can try the way you said, then indeed the spinach leaves won’t dry quite so, but I used them sort of an insulation between the eggplant shelves and the juicier filling, so the first won’t get too mushy.
No worries at all, I like feedbacks, because from talks you always learn a thing or two. 😉
I did this recipe and the eggplents NEVER cook
Elvira, please detail more.
If you like the eggplants softer, you can leave them a bit more in the oven, but for my taste they will be a little overdone and mushy.