Feta stuffed Romano peppers and aubergine
The inspiration for this recipe came from the Italian aubergine and mozzarella dish, parmigiana di melanzane. I use Greek and Middle Eastern flavours and ingredients to create a little less rib-sticking dish. Salty feta and nutty, chewy bulgar wheat combine with the sweet peppers and soft aubergine in a garlicy tomato sauce. A sprinkling of mint at the end brings freshness and vibrancy.
This recipe was developed with Kitchen Titbits.
Serves: 2
Ingredients:
- 2 Romano peppers
- 1 aubergine
- 50g bulgar wheat
- 1 pack of feta (approx 200g)
- A sprig of fresh thyme, leaves removed from stalk (or a pinch of dried)
- Half a tin of tomatoes
- 1 small clove of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil
- A few mint leaves
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
- Split the peppers in half, lengthways (it looks good in the finished dish if you can cut through the stalk) and remove the seeds.
- Thinly slice the aubergine lengthways.
- Lay the peppers and sliced aubergine on a roasting tray (you might need two trays). then sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.
- Roast for about 30 minutes until soft and leave until cool enough to handle.
- Whilst the vegetables are roasting, cook the bulgar wheat in boiling water for about 10 minutes then drain it and run it under cold water to cool it.
- Finely chop the end slices of aubergine that are mostly skin.
- In a bowl, mash the feta with a drizzle of olive oil.
- Stir in the pepper, thyme, finely chopped aubergine and bulgar wheat.
- Put a little bit of stuffing at one end of a slice of aubergine and roll up. Repeat with the remaining slices.
- Stuff the peppers with rest of the feta mixture.
- Blitz the tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil, the garlic, salt and pepper, using a small food processor or a stick blender.
- Pour the tomato sauce into the bottom of a baking dish. Place the peppers and aubergines on top of the sauce.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes until nicely coloured.
- Sprinkle with the fresh mint which you can simply tear with your fingers.
- Serve with garlic bread (homemade with wild garlic butter would be amazing but the bought stuff is just fine) or a flatbread and a green salad.