Monday, August 10, 2009

Happy stacks

There's nothing to say here. This one is a complete, instinctual, no-brainer of a recipe. Easy, fast, and good for summertime. I can recommend a light, crunchy salad of some sort and warm bread on the side, but aside from that, I'll leave you to the recipe.

Tomato-Eggplant-Fresh Mozzarella Napoleans

1 smallish (but not baby) eggplant, sliced into rounds
1-2 biggish beefsteak or heirloom tomatoes, sliced into rounds
a big log of fresh mozz, sliced into rounds
chopped fresh basil
roasted red peppers
freshly ground black pepper
balsamic vinegar

First, begin heating a large frying pan over medium heat. Spray or drizzle it with a little olive oil. Lay eggplant slices down-- however many will fit-- and cook about five minutes per side, or until lightly browned. Transfer to plate. Once all the eggplant slices are cooked on both sides, you're ready for assembly. See? That was easy.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. You can stack your ingredients in whatever order you choose. Mine went something like this:

Eggplant
Fresh mozz
Black pepper
Tomato
Eggplant
Roasted red pepper
A pinch of basil
Fresh mozz

I'm pretty sure it's impossible to botch this. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the cheese starts to melt a little (but before it creates an oozy ocean in the pan). If you want, you could experiment with broiling the stacks for a minute or two, to brown the tops. Optional.

Drizzle with balsamic vinegar, and serve.


7 comments:

katherine mary said...

ooooohhhh!!! anytime you melt mozzarella on ANYTHING i'm in! Made the green bean paninis last night, added the ham (just one slice) like you reccommended and it was SPECTACULAR and super easy!!!

love ya!

Kristina Strain said...

Awesome! Glad to hear one of my recipes has been tried (and loved) by someone else. What kind of cheese did you use?

Lisa-Marie said...

mmmmmmmmmm! I made the green bean panini too - i may have put half a slice of bacon on it. It was AH-mazing! the saltiness with the beans was yum.

Kristina Strain said...

Ooo, I bet bacon would be excellent as well. Good idea.

Jenny said...

I make this with gridled marinated aubergines and roasted tomatoes on rocket with creme fraiche and paprika drizzled over... yummy... i think i also usually stick some feta between the aubergines and tomatoes, but I am also entirely comfortable with the concept of buffalo mozarella instead. i ate my weight in it in italy.

Kristina Strain said...

Translation for all the non-UK-savvy folk out there: aubergine=eggplant.

Jen, your version sounds like it could kick mine's butt with one of more slices of tomato ties behind its back. :)

Meand3Jays said...

I bet this recipe would be delicious with a big mushroom on the bottom. Do you happen to have a recipe for homemade tomato soup? My ex-husband's grandmother used to make the best tomato soup ever...it was chunky and delicious, not pureed.

This is Laura, I could not sign in for some reason.

Post a Comment

Thank you, so much, for taking the time to chime in here. Your comments make my day. Let's do our best to keep the snarkiness at bay and be a happy, friendly place in the interwebs.

Related Posts with Thumbnails