Eggplants stuffed with ricotta and ham — Aubergines farcies à la ricotta et au jambon

stuffed eggplant

Stuffed Eggplants

“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!

Posted in French Inspired, Gluten Free

30 comments

  1. 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!

  2. 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 🙂

  3. “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.

  4. 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!

  5. En effet, les légumes farcis sont un régal (y compris les champignons, en entrée)! Cette recette a l’air délicieuse!

  6. 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

  7. 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.

  8. “Stuffed tomatoes”… c’est toujours excellent de savoir comment sont traduits nos intitulés de plats typiques !

  9. 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 🙂

  10. 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!

  11. 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 🙂

  12. 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.

  13. 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 …

  14. Pingback: Best of the Web – Gooseberry Fool: Foodie links for 8 September | Roaming Tales

  15. 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

  16. Pingback: Eggplant Linguini

  17. Pingback: Every so often Daily Post of Interesting Stuff | You Should Listen!

  18. Pingback: Globe zucchini stuffed with marjoram and sweet potato — Courgettes rondes farcies à la patate douce et marjolaine | La Tartine Gourmande

  19. euh !!! On pourrait avoir la traduction s’il vous plait ? Surtout sur un site Français, tout le monde n’est pas anglophone. Merci

  20. It contains an exquisite, I loved this dish.I wish I tasted a little bit, because if I do it, …Just a suggestion, if you want to make it a bit more high-end for guests