Roasted Eggplant with Feta and Beef

 This simple recipe makes 2 servings, and incorporates these cool long and skinny eggplants that are popular to grown down in the South.  Our very nice neighbor gave some to us, and this was a great way to use them up before they went pruny.  Eggplant + feta, how can you go wrong, right?  Right!  Especially when you add to the team my standing favorites...garlic and onion.

Ingredients:

4 garlic cloves, med-large, chopped

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

4 long eggplants, sliced in half, then in 1-2 inch pieces

1/2 pound ground beef

2 cups loose fresh spinach, long stems removed

4-5 oz. crumbled feta

10-12 small caper berries

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

salt for sweating (sea salt preferred)

olive oil for sauteing, approximately 1 ½-2 T

margarine for greasing

Do:

• Grease a 9 x 9 glass pan bottom and 1” up sides
• Sweat eggplant by sprinkling salt on cut side, let sit while sauteing onion and garlic, then mop with paper towel to absorb excess liquid
• Sauté onions at low heat just until they begin to break down and become limp, before browning
• Sauté garlic until softened, set aside with the onion



Almost wilted

• The olive oil will now have been mostly used up, add the eggplant in sections, placing the cut side face down on the skillet for about 2 minutes on low heat, flip and cook for another 2 minutes.  *Watch the coloring on the skin, it should be changed about 1/2 way up the sides with the meat getting tender but not mushy.  Set aside.
• Brown the ground beef at med-high heat, drain excess fat, lower heat
• Add to the beef the capers, lay the spinach leaves on top, and add the black pepper, turning with a spatula just until the spinach leaves start to wilt and are evenly dispersed

Assemble:

In the greased pan, place the eggplant, cut side up

Evenly distribute the onion/garlic mixture over this

Then add the beef/spinach/caper mixture

Top with the crumbled feta

Eggplant, face up

Add onion/garlic

Assembly complete

Cook:

Bake covered at 350 degrees for 20 minutes

Remove cover and broil on high for 3-4 minutes, just until the feta begins to brown

Serve in bowls (will become tossed when you dish, this adds to appearance), with herbed orzo on the side.

The feta was the key ingredient here, it brought the necessary flavor to tie this together and make it quite good.  A regular, fat eggplant could be used as well, and the capers are optional, but add a nice salty bite.  Try it, change it, improve it!  Just let me know…