Greek-style stuffed eggplant or “papoutsakia”

The Mediterranean diet has many recipes for stuffed vegetables, whether with meat or vegetarian, and especially there are many variants with aubergine. „Papoutsakia“ literally means „little shoes“ in Greek, the stuffed aubergines seem to have that shape. They are filled with a mixture of meat, tomato, vegetables and spices. The dish is finally crowned with a gratin of bechamel sauce and grated cheese.

Bake the whole aubergines in the oven preheated to 200 degrees for about 25-30 minutes, until they are tender. Remove and when they have cooled, cut the aubergines lengthwise without dividing them completely. Gently press the inside with a spoon, in order to get rid of the liquid and create a hole where we will later put the filling. Salt them lightly.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling: dice the onion and garlic, heat two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a pan without letting it smoke and sauté the vegetables until the onion turns transparent. Add the ground beef and season with salt, pepper, cinnamon, thyme and mint. Stir briefly until the meat is browned. After 3-4 minutes add a glass of red wine, cook briefly so that the alcohol evaporates. Lastly, add the passata or crushed tomatos. Cover and reduce to low heat for 10-15 minutes.

After the aubergines have been salted, they may have released more liquid. Press again with the spoon to get rid of it and using a spoon, stuff them with the filling.

Mix the yogurt and grated cheese in a bowl, and cover the filling of the eggplants with this mixture.

Bake the “shoes” for about 5-10 minutes (just enough for the cheese to melt) and serve with some sprinkled parsley.

Tips and tricks:

1. It’s possible to use Parmesano or Grana Padano cheese for the gratin. For an authentic Greek variation, you can use Kefalotyri cheese, but crumbled feta works great too. In this case, the cheese will give it a lot of flavor but it may be less appealing to the eye, since it will not gratin like the other cheeses.
2. Originally the filling is finished with a bit of béchamel sauce before the cheese, but I use yogurt and cheese instead, in order to make the dish a bit lighter.
3. The ground meat can be beef, lamb, or mixed.
4. The spices and herbs used in the recipe can be changed according to your taste. It’s possible to avoid mint or change it for parsley, we can also use a little ground cloves or cumin, paprika, allspice, etc. A bit of cumin is always welcome, but too much can cover the other flavors. Thyme and cinnamon go very well with meat, and are part of the “personality” of this recipe.
5. Draining the excess liquid in the eggplant helps us to get rid of its bitter taste. On the other hand, if you are going to fry them, this helps them absorb less oil as well.
6. Eggplants are very important vegetables in the vegetarian cuisine. If instead you prefer a similar recipe but vegetarian, do not miss the recipe for „Imam bayildi“