This recipe for eggplant dumplings alla parmigiana comes from Yotam Ottolenghi. He is an Israeli born British chef who tends to create a lot of vegetable forward recipes. I have one of his cookbooks and I love the creative ways he uses vegetables and how everything is so focused on flavor. I haven’t had a boring dish yet from him and I appreciate that.
My husband and I love eggplant but unfortunately all 3 of my kids really don’t like it, so I don’t make it very often. I couldn’t resist this recipe when I saw it, and figured my daughter could at least eat the pasta and sauce if she didn’t like the dumplings.
I was surprised by how much we loved the texture and taste of these dumplings. Eggplant can be a bit bland and this dish definitely wasn’t. The eggplant is roasted first at a high temp, and then chopped and mixed with ricotta, bread crumbs, parmesan, eggs, garlic and basil. This mixture is formed into balls and pan fried lightly in olive oil before being baked in the homemade tomato sauce. This recipe made a 9×13 pan and we ate leftovers the next night for dinner and the dumplings held up super well and were just as good the second day.
Eggplant Dumplings Alla Parmigiana
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried breadcrumbs I used Italian seasoned
- 2 lbs eggplant cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 6 tbsp ricotta cheese
- 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp flour
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 3/4 cup fresh basil leaves chopped
- 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
- 1 1/2 tsp tomato paste
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 450 and line a baking sheet with parchment. Spread the eggplant pieces on the try and toss with 1/4 cup of the oil and 1/2 tsp salt and some pepper. Spread them out as much as possible. Bake for 30 minutes and then cool slightly.
- Chop the eggplant until it is a chunky mash. Add the ricotta, parmesan, egg, yolk, flour, breadcrumbs, half the garlic, 1/2 the basil, 1/4 tsp salt, and some pepper. Mix well with your hands. If the mixture is too wet add some extra bread crumbs or flour. You should be able to form balls that hold together, but they should not be dry.
- Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a skillet and form golf ball sized balls of the mixture. Cook half of them, browning on all sides and set aside. Add 2 more tbsp of oil and fry the other half.
- Reduce the oven to 400. To make the sauce, place a little oil into a sauce pan and add the rest of the garlic. Sautee a bit then add the crushed tomatoes, tomato pasted, sugar, chile flakes, paprika, oregano and 1 tsp of salt. Simmer for a few minutes then add the cup of water and continue to simmer about 10-15 minutes until thickened.
- Pour the sauce into a 9×13 inch pan and nestle the dumplings into the sauce. Bake for 20 minutes until hot and bubbling and then top with the rest of the basil and grated parm and serve. I served over pappardelle.