Eggplants stuffed with ricotta and ham — Aubergines farcies à la ricotta et au jambon
“Tu ne peux pas partir avant d’avoir mangé des tomates farcies!” (You cannot leave before eating stuffed tomatoes) my mother exclaimed as she walked in the kitchen with a basket full of tomatoes picked in the garden. Of course not! Les tomates du jardin (tomatoes from the garden) are always delectable, making me never want to buy a tomato ever again. And her recipe for tomates farcies is a must-have-right-now.
And like my mother, whether using tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant or peppers, during the summer, I love to stuff vegetables. Don’t you? Just like in the recipe of these stuffed eggplants.
It’s a recipe that I wrote for the Seasons column of the Boston Globe. I like to vary the stuffing. Sometimes, I’ll make one using ground veal and pork, or beef. At other times, it’s going to be rice or quinoa with grated vegetables, spices and herbs in a vegetarian version.
Here, the recipe calls for Italian eggplants (I prefer them because they are smaller, tastier and easy to stuff) and a stuffing combining ricotta, ham, coriander, tomatoes, the flesh of the eggplants and a generous amount of freshly grated pecorino. It’s honest, humble food. It’s a dish simple to make, one that you can prepare ahead of time and reheat at the last minute when you want to spend more time outside.
I hope you enjoy it!
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Love it Béa! I’ve been cooking with eggplants the past few days myself. I’ll add this recipe to the line up. The veggies are soooo delicious and plentiful this year. Happy summer!
Comment by valérie-jeanne — On August, 19th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Eggplant is such a wonderful veg. Love this recipe, Béa.
Comment by Anh — On August, 19th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
i enjoy it (:
Comment by YOYO love cooking — On August, 19th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Once again, I fell in love with French countryside! You are surrounded with so much beauty that it should be almost impossible not to get inspired
And for your question, we also stuff a variety of vegetables in Turkey: stuffed wine leaves (known as dolma) are well known but we also have stuffed eggplant, tomato, potato, zucchini, all sorts of pepper… If you go to northern Turkey, they even have a regional dish that they stuff a tiny fish called hamsi with rice and veggies. Takes a lot of time to prepare but the result is very, very delicious.
Hmmm, now I’m hungry!..and I am really looking forward for my visit to my home country in September
Comment by Foodie Notes — On August, 20th, 2009 at 12:52 am
i love eggplants cooked like this! They are so tasty
Comment by fra — On August, 20th, 2009 at 2:20 am
sounds great with ricotta and tomato, looks yamyam ;-.)
Comment by Ellja — On August, 20th, 2009 at 2:26 am
“you cannot leave before… ” sounds like my mother. i love eggplant, i’ll have to pick up a couple at the farmer’s market next time.
Comment by beyond — On August, 20th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Cool dish you have the eggplant on–a lovely photo. I have Japanese eggplant out in my garden that will work very well with this recipe.
—As for the summer heat, I know what you mean about missing the fresh air…good time to stay in and work on your book, right? My book’s release is in delay right now—hopefully by the holidays!
Comment by Debi Shawcross — On August, 20th, 2009 at 8:57 am
En effet, les légumes farcis sont un régal (y compris les champignons, en entrée)! Cette recette a l’air délicieuse!
Comment by Valérie — On August, 20th, 2009 at 8:57 am
This looks incredible and very different, I love all sorts of good eggplant dishes.
Comment by Aysegul - nysdelight — On August, 20th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Quelle est la traduction de cilantro? j’ai trouvé coriandre mais il y a déjà “coriander” dans la recette?
Bravo pour ce blog appétissant et rafarichissant,illustré magnifiquement(en attendant le livre) et qui me permet de mettre à profit en dehors des voyages un peu d’anglais qiue j’ai appris au lycée, puis laissé tombé pour mieux le perfectionner depuis deux ans par des cours …
Le livre de recettes sera-t-il bilingue?
Cordialement
Une bise à la belle Lulu
Dominique de….Moselle
Comment by dom — On August, 20th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Oh man this looks great! I love seeing all that wonderful food sitting in the eggplants like little boats of flavor:)
Comment by Nutmeg Nanny — On August, 20th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
My oh my I can’t stop drooling. I love eggplant and this looks right up my alley. Faved it for make the next time I get my hands on some gorgeous eggplants.
Comment by The Purple Foodie — On August, 22nd, 2009 at 2:30 pm
“Stuffed tomatoes”… c’est toujours excellent de savoir comment sont traduits nos intitulés de plats typiques !
Comment by Maybe — On August, 23rd, 2009 at 11:30 am
did your recipe last weekend, very very delicious!!!
Comment by Ellja — On August, 24th, 2009 at 8:00 am
I just made this last night for dinner! I substituted part-skim ricotta (my mistake by purchase) and basil for the cilantro, it turned out fantastic and my friends all wanted the recipe! It was easy, hearty, and healthy. Thank you for a wonderful recipe
Comment by Erin — On August, 24th, 2009 at 11:18 am
I made this last night, with a giant zucchini in place of the eggplant and without the cilantro (forgot to buy it) and it was beyond delicious. My family was very suspicious because we’ve been eating a lot of zucchini lately, but they gobbled it up. Thank you!
Comment by Suzyn — On August, 25th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I made this dish over the weekend and it was incredible… the end result reminded me of a lasagna without the noodles (and better)… simply delicious
Comment by Connie — On August, 25th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
I am so pleased to hear that those of you, Connie, Suzyn, Erin, Ellja, wh tried the recipe liked it. Thanks so much for letting me know how it turned out.
Dom, coriander et cilantro, c’est la meme chose
Et le livre sera d’abord en anglais. 
La suite, a voir.
Comment by Béa — On August, 26th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Yum! I love this! Thanks for sharing!
Comment by Ginny — On August, 26th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Bea! I made this. EVERYONE loved it. thank you for this recipe – it’s a keeper! If you’d like to check out my post on the stuffed eggplant, here is where: http://www.purplefoodie.com/2009/08/stuffed-eggplant-goodness.html
Comment by The Purple Foodie — On August, 29th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Tried this last night and really enjoyed it. My eggplant came out less beautiful but it was still quite good. Thank you for inspiring a tasty dinner …
Comment by sciencegeek — On September, 4th, 2009 at 8:54 am
[...] Stuffed eggplants. Another tasty aubergine idea, this time from Bea at La Tartine Gourmande – eggplants stuffed with ricotta and ham. [...]
Pingback by Best of the Web – Gooseberry Fool: Foodie links for 8 September | Roaming Tales — On September, 8th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Hi Bea! first at all, thank you for share with us your amazing and delicious recipes and your inspired stories. I cooked the eggplants stuffed that you teach me and I´d want to show how it looked! I added some parmesan cheese over the eggplants and it tasted great. You can see the picture here: http://twitpic.com/gqnx8
Comment by Catalina — On September, 9th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
[...] Eggplants stuffed with ricotta and ham – Aubergines farcies à la ricotta et au jambon (latartinegourmande.com) Posted in Vegetables | Tags: aubergine « Bewitching Brie [...]
Pingback by Eggplant Linguini — On September, 25th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
[...] Eggplants stuffed with ricotta and ham — Aubergines farcies à la ricotta et au jambon – Making on Tuesday! [...]
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