Eggplant is a particularly good receptacle for leftovers, such as cooked rice or grains and the remains of a roast. When I’m using eggplant, I usually roast it in the morning, or the night before I’m going to stuff it. Then it takes only about 40 minutes to be ready to enjoy. This stuffed eggplant is good hot, warm, or at room temperature, so you can to take it on a picnic, or to the park for lunch.

　　

Ingredients

1 small eggplant, about 5 inches long

　　1/2 cup cooked rice

　　1/2 cup cooked meat (lamb, preferably, or pork, beef, leftover meatloaf), chopped fine

　　2 scallions, diced fine

　　2 teaspoons toasted pine nuts

　　2 canned tomatoes (preferably San Marzano), squeezed, or, if in season, 2 small fresh tomatoes, diced

　　Pinch of cinnamon

　　Salt and freshly ground pepper

　　2 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs

　　Extra-virgin olive oil

　　

Step 1

Prick the eggplant all over with a fork, and put it in a preheated 425° oven for 35 minutes. Remove, and let cool. Slice the eggplant in half lengthwise, and scoop out the flesh, leaving a comfortable border of skin and flesh all around. Chop the eggplant flesh you have extracted, and mix it in a bowl with the rice, meat, scallions, pine nuts, and tomatoes. Season with cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Spoon this filling back into the eggplant shells, mounding it up in the middle, and arrange the halves in a shallow baking pan that just holds them. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top, and drizzle onto them a little olive oil. Bake in a preheated 400° oven for 30–35 minutes, until tender and browned on top.

　　

Variation

Step 2

Stuff green peppers or zucchini in the same way, using the same general proportions. I like to blanch both these vegetables for a couple of in boiling water before I fill them and bake them.

　　The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones. Copyright © 2009 by Judith Jones. Published by Knopf. All Rights Reserved.Judith Jones is senior editor and vice president at Alfred A. Knopf. She is the author of The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food and the coauthor with Evan Jones (her late husband) of three books: The Book of Bread; Knead It, Punch It, Bake It!; and The Book of New New England Cookery. She also collaborated with Angus Cameron on The L. L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook, and has contributed to Vogue, Saveur, and Gourmet magazines. In 2006, she was awarded the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in New York City and Vermont.