Arancini Stuffed Eggplant

 

Yikes!

We are a day behind here. Sorry, Mes Amies. We had our first sizable snow of the season here on Sunday. That sort of threw a monkey wrench into the works.

Although, I think that today’s post will certainly make up for it. Today, I’m sharing with you one of the meals that my hubby requests most.

Risotto stuffed eggplant. Friends this is SO good.

One thing I love about this recipe is that you can make it vegetarian. You can make some of them with meat, some without all in the same batch. My hubby loves it with the sweet Italian sausage. I prefer mine without it. I can make us both what we like all in one meal.

Also, this freezes incredibly well. I double the batch for the very reason of making a freezer meal with half of it.

If you do decide to do this, you’ll want to cook it from frozen in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour.

 I’m not going to go into detail as how to make risotto or marinara sauce in this post. Those are both considerably basic recipes that most folks already have a preferred method of preparing. Also, not that I'd encourage using premade risotto or marinara sauce. However, if you need to make this into a quick & easy week night meal, that's how to do it.

As always…. No long, drawn out story! On to the recipe!!

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

-2 Full size eggplants or 6 Italian Eggplants

-4 TBS of Olive Oil

-2 Cups of cooked Risotto

- 1.5 Cups of marinara sauce

-1 Cup of shredded mozzarella

- 1 TSP dried basil

-1/4 C grated Parmesan Cheese

-2 TBS Panko Bread Crumbs

- Salt & Pepper to Flavor

-3/4 cooked, ground sweet Italian sausage (optional)

 

 

 

 

 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 °F. Cut the eggplants lengthwise in half. Use a paring knife to remove most of the pulp, turning the eggplants into a bowl shape. Cube half of the pulp and set aside.

Place eggplants on a parchment lined, rimed baling sheet. Baste each eggplant with olive oil. Top with a dash of salt. Place in over for 40 minutes.

While the eggplant is in the over, mix together cooked risotto, marinara, basil, reserved eggplant pulp, mozzarella cheese and sausage if you are including it.

 

Fill the eggplants with the risotto mixture, top with parmesan cheese and Panko Crumbs. (If freezing, this is your last step) and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Enjoy!!

 

 

 

XO,

SheShe