Eggplant Stacks with Smoked Mozzarella
Fresh eggplant with smoked mozzarella, fresh basil and roma tomatoes baked in a homemade marinara and ricotta sauce to bubbly perfection.
This was simply perfect for a Meatless Monday meal!
So how do you get to the moment when you can devour this as soon as possible?! It's very easy, actually.
Eggplant is a very watery vegetable so it is important to take the time to dry out your slices. This is the only time consuming part of the whole process. Once that was done and I started assembling the stacks, I was confused that I was forgetting something because it literally took 5 minutes to put together - that is if you have your marinara sauce ready to go! Even that can take 10 minutes.
Take the skin off the eggplant, then slice the eggplant into 1/2 inch slices. Sprinkle with salt on both sides and let it sit for close to an hour. Blot the slices and remove the salt and you're ready to go!
As I said before, the sauce can take you 10 minutes to make. A quick and delicious sauce is to combine one 16 oz can stewed tomatoes, one 8 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes, one 6 oz can tomato sauce, 1/4 cup white wine, 3 minced garlic cloves, 1 TBS olive oil, 1/2 small onion diced and 6 basil leaves torn. Sautee the garlic and onion in the olive oil first, then add tomatoes, wine and basil. Take a handheld blender (I use a Cuisinart), and blend all ingredients until sauce is smooth. Mix in salt, pepper, red pepper flakes to taste and about a 1/2 C grated parmesan cheese. Let that come to a slow simmer and then enjoy! To make the rose sauce, simply add about 3-4 oz part-skim ricotta and blend until sauce turns a rosy pink color.
Let this bake to bubbly perfection, then enjoy!
- 1 large eggplant, sliced, salted and blotted
- 4 C rose sauce - see notes
- 2 plum tomatoes
- 6oz smoked mozzarella, sliced thinly
- 12-14 basil leaves
- Preheat oven to 400.
- In a deep baking dish, pour a thin layer of rose sauce on the bottom.
- To stack the eggplant, top one slice with smoked mozzarella cheese, tomato and basil, then top with one more eggplant slice.
- Place stacks in the baking dish and ladle rose sauce over stacks. Add a thin slice of smoked mozzarella to the top of each stack, then bake about 15-20 minutes, or until sauce is bubbling and cheese on top is beginning to brown.
