Baked Eggplant with Peppers in Tomato Sauce

Making the sauce

1. To make eggplant with peppers for two, you need large, not overripe eggplants, preferably not too long and cylindrical. For the sauce, it is best to take meaty red bell peppers so the baking sauce has a pleasant color. The tomatoes can be red or pink, but they must be very ripe. And to give the sauce a piquant, spicy taste, add a whole hot pepper or a piece of one, to taste.

2. Cut the tomatoes into four pieces and remove the white parts and the stem area. You do not need to remove the thin skin and the seeds.

   

3. Puree the tomatoes with a blender.

4. Rub the tomato puree through a sieve or mesh colander to separate the puree from the remaining seeds and skins. Pour the clean tomato puree into a bowl.

   

5. Peel the onion and chop it finely.

6. Heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil in a pan and fry the onion over medium heat until soft.

7. Remove the seeds from the red bell pepper and the hot pepper. Cut the bell pepper into small cubes and chop the hot pepper fairly finely with a knife.

8. Add the bell pepper to the onion and keep frying everything together.

   

9. Fry the vegetables until the onion turns golden and starts to take on the red color of the pepper. The bell pepper will lose most of its moisture and begin to fry. There should be no free liquid left in the fried vegetables.

   

10. Add all the prepared tomato puree to the fried pepper and onion. Add the finely chopped garlic and hot pepper.

11. Add salt and pepper to the sauce, then 0.5 tsp sugar (2 g) and a knife-tip of ground nutmeg. The vegetables are especially good when the heat is clearly noticeable, so you can add a pinch of coarsely ground hot pepper if you like.

    

12. Simmer the sauce over low heat, uncovered, for at least 15 mins. The sauce should become fairly thick, similar in consistency to Bolognese ragu, or even thicker. All the vegetables in the sauce should be completely soft. Add salt and spices to taste.

    

Preparing the eggplant

1. Wash the eggplants and dry them well.

2. Cut off the ends and, with a large sharp knife, cut each one into slices 4–5 mm thick, trying to leave strips of dark skin at the edges of the slices. Keep the top and bottom slices too, as you will need them.

   

3. Brush the bottom of the pan with vegetable oil and lay the eggplant slices on it. Brush the other side of the slices with oil.

   Eggplant soaks up vegetable oil like a sponge when frying, so it can end up very greasy and high in calories. That is why we limit the amount of frying oil. This much oil is enough to fry the slices to a golden color.

4. Fry all the slices on both sides over medium heat in turn, including the end pieces. The eggplant flesh should be soft and a pleasant golden shade. Never overfry the eggplant.

   

5. Move the fried slices to a plate.

Baking the eggplant with peppers

1. It is convenient to do the final baking in a disposable aluminum dish of a suitable size.

2. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

3. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of the dish with a little vegetable oil so the vegetables do not stick during baking.

4. Lay the eggplant slices in the dish one by one, starting from the lowest one, the end piece with solid skin. Spread each slice with the pepper and tomato sauce.

   Try alternating slices and sauce, choosing the width of the slices so that they form the shape of a whole eggplant. If the dish is roomy enough, both eggplants will fit. The last piece should be the second end slice with solid skin.

   

5. When the layering is done, brush the top with a thin layer of vegetable oil. In total, the whole dish took less than a third of a cup of vegetable oil.

   

6. Put the dish in the preheated oven and bake for 30 mins, which is enough. To make the aluminum dish easy to handle, set it inside a ceramic or glass one. That way the sauce will not spill over onto the hot baking sheet and the aluminum will not warp under the weight of the dish.

How to serve eggplant with peppers

1. Take the dish with the finished eggplant out of the oven and set it on a wooden board. Be careful, the aluminum dish is very hot.

2. Use a spatula, or even two, to transfer the eggplant with peppers to prepared plates. If any sauce has spilled to the bottom of the dish, you can spoon it over the portions.

   

   Since eggplant with peppers is a hot appetizer, it does not need a side dish. A few fresh herbs, a slice of lemon and lavash with herbs are enough. However, if the dish is served as a main course, it goes well with couscous or bulgur with vegetables. Serve the appetizer hot, but not scalding.