Hasselback Eggplants
Late summer vegetables are bursting with flavor. Eggplant and tomatoes are a classic pairing, but because eggplant takes so long to cook through, it can be tricky getting them to cook together without ending up with a mush. The hasselback technique, where you cut an ingredient most of the way through in parallel slices, is usually used for things like potatoes, butternuts, beets, and even chicken, but it also works brilliantly to combine eggplants and tomatoes. By stuffing the eggplants with tomato, cheese, and seasonings, all the delicious flavors cook together while holding their shapes. One eggplant per person makes a generous, vegetarian main dish, or you can cut them into thirds to serve as sides. See the end of the recipe for tips.
Abby Schweber
Ingredients
2 medium eggplants*, about 6 ounces each
3-4 large tomatoes*
3-4 ounces of cheese*
1 cup fresh herbs* (any one or more of mint, basil, dill, cilantro)
1 head garlic*
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
2 Tbs. mustard (optional)
1 cup olive oil
*These ingredients can be found at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market
Method
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Blitz herbs, garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, and mustard (if using) in a food processor or blender to make a paste.
Place a wooden chopstick along each of the long sides of your eggplant and cut into ½” slices, making sure that the chopsticks stop the knife from going all the way through. Brush the insides of the cuts with the herb paste, making sure to reach all the way to the bottom. Place the eggplants in loaf pans.
Cut the tomatoes into ¼” rounds. Remove stem bits as needed.
Cut the cheese into ¼” slices.
Insert a slice each of tomato and cheese into each of the cuts in the eggplants. Brush the remaining herb paste on the top of each eggplant.
Bake the eggplants until they are soft all the way through, 45-60 minutes.
Tips
Using wooden chopsticks to cut the eggplant, the chopsticks will stop your knife from going all the way through to get the hasselback. Just make sure that the bottom of the part of the eggplant you are cutting into is touching your cutting board, and the chopsticks will measure your cut for you.
Choose a cheese that doesn’t run when it melts. These cook for quite a while, so a runny cheese will just run all the way out and turn into a hard crust at the bottom of the pan instead of filling your eggplant. Well-aged or smoked cheddar and gouda work, as do feta and soft goat cheeses like chevre.
Use large tomatoes so the slices are as big, or nearly as big, as the eggplant.
Not so much a trick, just a note: mustard gives the dish a deeper flavor and a bit of zing; leave it out for a lighter, fresher flavor.
Brushing the sliced eggplant with the herb paste before cutting the remaining ingredients gives the salt in the paste time to soften the eggplant a bit, making it easier to stuff.
