Bread Machine (118 page)
Stuffed Eggplant
Serves 2
I consider stuffed eggplant to be real home cooking. This version contains meat, making it a main dish rather than a vegetable side. Serve it next to pasta with butter and parsley and a simple salad.
2 slices homemade white, whole wheat, or herb bread, crusts removed
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cup flat-leaf parsley
1 large eggplant (at least 1 pound)
1 tablespoon olive oil
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2
pound ground sirloin
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
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of a large red pepper, finely chopped
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
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cup coarse grated mozzarella cheese
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teaspoons dried marjoram or oregano
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teaspoon crushed hot red pepper flakes
Salt and black pepper, to taste
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cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons grated Asiago cheese
Place the bread in a food processor and grind to coarse crumbs; you will have 1 cup. Add the parsley and chop to make parsleyed crumbs. Remove to a bowl and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Halve the eggplant lengthwise. Scoop out the insides, leaving
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2
-inch sides. Sprinkle the inside of the shells with salt. Set in a shallow 8-by-8-inch baking dish. Chop the eggplant that was scooped out.
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the ground meat and brown for about 10 minutes. Add the onion, pepper, and eggplant; sauté until soft, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the tomatoes and cheese. Add the seasonings. Divide the filling in half and pile into the eggplant shells.
Toss the crumbs with the
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4
cup olive oil. Sprinkle on top of the stuffed shells; sprinkle with Asiago. Bake for 45 minutes. Serve hot, with some hot marinara sauce on the side, if desired.
I
n the early days of Greens Restaurant in San Francisco this bread was served as an appetizer, with wine. There is some wine right in the recipe, which gives the bread considerable character. This bread is a good choice to serve for dinner, but day-old it is also great for croutons or as a savory base for melted cheese.
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-POUND LOAF
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cup water
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cup dry white wine
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cup olive oil
2 cups bread flour
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4
cup whole wheat flour
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4
cup rye flour
1 tablespoon gluten
1 tablespoon sugar
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teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons SAF yeast or 2
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teaspoons bread machine yeast
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3
cup pine nuts, coarsely chopped
2-POUND LOAF
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3
cup water
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3
cup dry white wine
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3
cup olive oil
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2
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3
cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
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3
cup rye flour
1 tablespoon plus
1 teaspoon gluten
1 tablespoon plus
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2
1
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2
teaspoons SAF yeast or 1 tablespoon bread machine yeast
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cup pine nuts, coarsely chopped
Place the ingredients, except the pine nuts, in the pan according to the order in the manufacturer’s instructions. Set crust on medium and program for the Basic or French Bread cycle; press Start. (This recipe is not suitable for use with the Delay Timer.) Five minutes into Knead 2, sprinkle in the pine nuts.
When the baking cycle ends, immediately remove the bread from the pan and place it on a rack. Let cool to room temperature before slicing.
S
helled nuts are tremendously popular, so popular that they have been described as having halos because they give so much gustatory pleasure. When you add the nuts to this bread coarsely chopped, you end up with chunks of the nut in the bread, as well as some ground up from the action of the blade. Choose from some of the most popular varieties—hazelnut, walnut, pecan, macadamia, pistachio, peanut, or almond. Each nut has a corresponding nut oil, which is important to use in this bread, for flavor and to make the dough pliable. You can use a lightly toasted nut oil or a cold-pressed one. Be sure to use only one flavor nut with its oil per batch of bread, but as you bake this bread again and again using different nuts, you will be surprised at the variety you can achieve from just this one recipe.
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-POUND LOAF
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cup (3 to 4 ounces) nutmeat pieces
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cups buttermilk