Stuffed eggplants with tomato and cheese

Days ago I asked my Instagram followers what they like to see on the blog the most, the recipes they immediately feel like making in their homes when I post: cakes and cookies were the champions, followed by brownies and bread. Some followers told me they love my savory recipes, to vary the daily meals, and soups were also mentioned. 

I must confess that I love baking and photographing (and eating!) cakes and cookies, but one cannot live on these alone, especially now that I am no longer exercising daily as I used to. Therefore, I will continue posting the sweet recipes my Brazilian followers love so much, but will focus on the savory ones, like these stuffed eggplants I bring you today: they are delicious! A vegetarian meal full of flavor and that looks beautiful on the plate. 

I would also love to hear what you, my foreign readers, like to see around here the most – please share with me your thoughts. Thanks. xx

Stuffed eggplants with tomato and cheese

own recipe

Eggplant “boats”:

2 large eggplants (about 350g/12oz each)

2 teaspoons olive oil 

Filling:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 ripe tomatoes, seeded, in small dice

sal and freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons dried oregano

a few fresh basil leaves

2 cups (140g) coarsely grated yellow mozzarella* - set aside 3 tablespoons to sprinkle over the dish

8 large black olives, pitted and finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°C. Line a large baking sheet with foil.

Cut the eggplants lengthwise, making little “boats” with them, and then make crisscross cuts on the flesh, but be careful not to pierce the skins. Brush the cut side with the olive oil and place it upside down, facing the foil. Bake for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, start the filling: heat the olive oil in a large frying pan (nonstick is better) over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute – do not let it burn or it will become bitter. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes start to break down. Add the oregano and cook for 2 more minutes. Stir in the basil and turn off the heat.

Remove the eggplants from the oven (keep it on), and very carefully not to get burned, using a spoon remove the flesh from the eggplants, but not too deep so the “boats” stay intact. Add the flesh to the cooked filling, stir in the cheese (do not forget to set aside 3 tablespoons for topping the dish) and the olives. Stuff the eggplant shells with the filling, sprinkle with the remaining cheese and place them back on the baking sheet. Bake for another 25 minutes. Serve immediately.

* the yellow mozzarella I used is not like fresh mozzarella balls, therefore it does not release too much liquid. Replace by cheddar or something similar texture wise.

Serves 4 – I served my stuffed eggplants with rice and a green salad on the side, so 1 “boat” (1/2 eggplant) was enough per person; if you intend to serve this as a single dish, I believe 2 “boats” (1 eggplant) per person should be enough

My tuna salad sandwiches

My husband and I are not people who swap meals for sandwiches very often – we do like our rice and beans, soups, pasta dishes, and now Joao has some serious competition on my Bolognese sauce, since my 2 ½ year-old nephew loves it as much as Joao does. <3

However, when burgers or tuna salad sandwiches are involved we are happy to have sandwiches for lunch or dinner, and more recently, the sardine rillette has become part of that small list. I did not imagine my husband liked tuna salad sandwiches until the day I made this recipe, which I have been making for over 20 years. He went crazy for the tuna salad and it instantly became part of our favorite things to eat on lazy weekends.

This tuna salad goes very well with all kinds of bread – including the soft rye bread I posted a while ago – but I find it very important to have the slices toasted if the kind of bread chosen is not very sturdy: it prevents the sandwiches from getting soggy.

My tuna salad sandwiches
own recipe

1 can of tuna preserved in water (120g/4oz drained weight)
1 carrot (about 100g/3oz) peeled and coarsely grated
1 small onion, finely diced*
handful of fresh flat leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
½ cup green olives, pitted and chopped
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oli
2/3 cup mayonnaise – homemade is even better
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Drain the tuna very well, then transfer to a large bowl and flake it with a fork. Mix in the carrot, onion, parsley and olives. Drizzle with the olive oil and mix well. Mix in the mayonnaise, season with salt and pepper and serve immediately with your favorite kind of bread.

* this recipe is delicious too if you replace the onion with celery

Makes 5-6 sandwiches using regular, white bread

Aperitif financiers - great with a glass of sparkling wine

If you’ve been here a while you probably know that I love financiers: I’ve made them in many different flavors for they are delicious and also a great way of using leftover egg whites (something I happen to have in my freezer quite often).

Savory financiers, however, was something I hadn’t tried before, and the ones on Rachel Khoo’s gorgeous cookbook looked so adorable I had to try them – they were part of my Christmas Eve dinner, something to be nibbled with drinks before the actual dinner was served.

The financiers turned out tasty and oh, so cute, making the table look even prettier – they were perfect paired with a glass of Prosecco and I’ll be making them again for my New Year’s dinner next week.

Aperitif financiers
slightly adapted from the oh, so beautiful The Little Paris Kitchen: 120 Simple But Classic French Recipes

65g unsalted butter, chopped
½ cup (50g) almond meal
¼ cup (35g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon granulated sugar
2 eggs, separated
generous pinch of salt
12 small pieces of parmesan
6-8 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half lengthwise
about 5 olives, sliced in rings

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter and flour twelve 2-tablespoon capacity financier or mini muffin molds.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat until it turns golden brown, then remove from the heat and cool to lukewarm.
In a small bowl, mix the almond meal, flour, baking powder and sugar. Set aside. In another small bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. In a third small bowl, place the yolks and slowly whisk in the warm butter. Fold this into the dry ingredients, then fold in the egg whites.
Spoon the batter into the prepared molds and top each with a piece of cheese, tomato halves and the olives, pushing slightly into the batter. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden. Unmold immediately onto a wire rack and serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 12

Olive oil bread + "The Hunger Games"

I asked for your thoughts on “The Hunger Games” trilogy a couple of months ago and today I want to tell you that I’m hooked on the books! By some of my readers’ suggestion I started with “The Hunger Games” even though I’d watched the movie and I really liked the book – my love for the movie got even bigger. Last night I started reading “Catching Fire” and the only reason I’ve put the book aside is because I have to work. :D Suzanne Collins has hypnotized me pretty much like Stieg Larsson did last year.

Great suggestions are always welcome and that is why I made this bread a couple of weeks ago: my dear friend Ana Elisa had told me that it was a very easy recipe that yielded delicious bread and after having a slice of it at her house I had to make it too; it was hard not to eat both loaves in a couple of hours, I’ll tell you that much. :)

Olive oil bread
from the beautiful Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes

5g dried yeast (or 14g fresh yeast)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 cup (240ml) lukewarm water
2 ½ cups (350g) all purpose flour, more if needed
1 ½ teaspoons salt
¾ cup chopped green olives

Put the yeast in a large bowl with the olive oil, sugar and water and mix together with a fork. Let sit for about 5 minutes or until foamy.
Add the flour and salt and mix until it comes together. Turn onto a clean surface and knead for about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic – I used the Kitchen Aid mixer for that.
Lightly oil the bowl and place the dough back in it, cover with plastic wrap and place in a draft-free warm place until dough doubles in volume, 1 ½ to 2 hours.
Punch down the dough and divide it in half. Add the half the olives to each dough portion and then work the dough to form a baguette-like shaped loaf. Transfer the loaves to a large baking sheet lined with foil. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and set aside in a warm place for 20-30 minutes.
In the meantime, preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F.
Bake the loaves for 30 minutes or so or until golden and the bottom of the loaves sounds hollow when you knock on it.

Makes 2 loaves

Feta, ricotta and lemon pasta with olive breadcrumbs

This recipe combines two types of cheese, black and green olives, lemon, a touch of thyme + a delicious topping in only one pasta dish, which turned out fantastic; I guess I should rename it and call it “Steven Soderbergh pasta” – after all, who besides him can gather so many stars in one single movie? I can only think of the late Altman.

Feta, ricotta and lemon pasta with olive breadcrumbs
adapted from the always delicious Australian Gourmet Traveller

Pasta:
200g penne
½ onion, finely chopped
100g ricotta
100g feta cheese, crumbled
60g black olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
60g green olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
finely grated zest and juice of ½ lemon
½ tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Olive breadcrumbs:
50g fresh breadcrumbs
15g black olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
15g green olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
finely grated zest of ½ lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoons of the cooking water. Return pasta to the saucepan with reserved water.
While pasta is cooking, combine olive oil, onion and garlic in a saucepan over medium-high heat and sauté until very tender and starting to caramelize. Transfer to a large bowl and cool slightly. Add the ricotta, feta, olives, lemon zest and juice and thyme and mix. Season to taste. Add the pasta and mix well. Transfer to a lightly oiled 1 quarter (1 liter) capacity baking dish.
Make the olive breadcrumbs: combine the breadcrumbs, the olives, the olive oil and the lemon zest in a small bowl. Season to taste. Spread evenly over the pasta mixture and bake until bubbling and golden (15-20 minutes). Serve hot.

Serves 2

Olive and rosemary breads

Joao and I are absolutely crazy for olives – that is why it is difficult for me to make a recipe that calls for them: we eat the whole jar beforehand. :D

The first time I made this recipe I used sage instead of rosemary, but after the breads were baked there was hardly any flavor left from the herb. Rosemary works beautifully here and even though it is a mighty herb it doesn’t overpower the olive flavor.

I highly recommend these still warm from the oven – and they reheat really well, too.

Olive and rosemary breads
from Donna Hay magazine

Basic dough:
1 teaspoon dry active yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup (240ml) lukewarm whole milk
2 ½ cups (350g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

1 quantity basic dough
generous ½ cup black olives
1 ½ tablespoons rosemary leaves
all purpose flour, for kneading
olive oil, for brushing

Place the yeast, sugar and milk in a bowl and mix to combine. Set aside in a warm place for 5 minutes or until bubbles appear on the surface.
Add the flour, salt and oil to the yeast mixture and mix until a smooth dough forms. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic, adding a little extra flour if the dough becomes too sticky – I used my Kitchen Aid to knead the dough.
Cover with plastic wrap, set aside in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Brush sixteen ½ cup (120ml) capacity pans with oil or cooking spray.
Press down the olives with the palm of your hand to remove the stones, then tear the olives into pieces. Knead the olives and rosemary leaves into the dough on a generously floured surface, incorporating extra flour to compensate for the wetness of the olives. Divide into 16 pieces and roll into balls.
Place in prepared pans, cover with a clean tea towel and set aside in a warm place for 45 minutes or until the dough is doubled in size. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
Brush with the oil and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Makes 16

Baked ricotta with olive salad

Anyone who’s been reading my blog for a little while might have probably noticed I’m insanely partial to sweets – don’t get me wrong, I love food as a whole, but desserts ARE the best part of a meal. Don’t you think? :D

As a very responsible person, ahem, I know that one can’t live on cakes, cookies and ice cream – that’s why I’m always searching for delicious savory recipes that will be as much fun to prepare as their sweet counterparts.

I love cooking with ricotta, but what really caught my eye here was the olive salad and the dressing – what a fabulous combination of flavors.

Baked ricotta with olive salad
from Australian Gourmet Traveller

Ricotta:
350g ricotta – I used homemade
2 eggs, separated
75g parmesan, finely grated
pinch of nutmeg, freshly grated

Olive salad:
200g mixed olives
½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ thinly sliced zest of an orange
¼ cup firmly packed flat-leaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil*

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF; grease well four 150ml-capacity well greased ovenproof dishes.

For olive salad, combine olives with chilli, garlic, orange zest, parsley and extra-virgin olive oil, season to taste – I used only freshly ground black pepper since the olives are salty already. Set aside.
Press ricotta through a fine sieve into a bowl – mine was really soft, so I skipped this part; add egg yolks, parmesan and nutmeg and stir to combine. Whisk egg whites in a large bowl until soft peaks form, add to ricotta mixture and gently fold until combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Spoon ricotta into prepared dishes and bake for 15 minutes or until golden – mine needed 25 minutes; they will puff in the oven like soufflés but will deflate.
Stand for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the molds and unmold the ricotta. Serve warm or at room temperature with the olive salad.

* I used garlic infused olive oil and omitted the garlic clove from the recipe

Serves 4

Pasta with tomatoes, olives, grana padano and basil

Joao loves pasta but he’ll mostly have it with tomato or bolognese sauce. He tried pesto when I first made it and liked it, but still looks at other pasta possibilities very suspiciously. That’s silly and I always tell him that.

So when I choose different pasta recipes to try he goes all “I want mine with bolognese sauce, please” and I go “ok, same old pasta for you, mister”. I won’t force him - mom made me eat beef so many times as a kid and I never learned to like it.
But things seem to be slowly changing around here… Bill’s pasta smelled so great that while eating I noticed a fork “stealing” spaghetti from my plate. And it happened with this pasta dish, too: every time I looked at my plate there was less food there – the fork had attacked again! I looked at Joao with angry eyes but it didn’t work. :)



I adapted a recipe found on a Portuguese food magazine called Blue Cooking and this is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Ulrike, from Kuchenlatein.

Pasta with tomatoes, olives, grana padano and basil

400g short pasta – choose the one you like the most
60g black olives, pitted and roughly chopped
500g ripe tomatoes, cut in 8 parts each (half moons)
salt
freshly ground black pepper
rosemary leaves
½ cup (120ml) extra virgin olive oil + extra olive oil to drizzle
4 garlic cloves
200 grana padano cheese, in shavings
1 handful basil leaves

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF. Lightly oil a baking dish and place the tomatoes on it; sprinkle with salt and pepper and set aside.
Peel and cut the garlic cloves so there is one piece of garlic for each tomato slice. Place the garlic on the tomatoes, add some rosemary leaves on top, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 10 minutes or until the tomatoes are tender and the skin starts to blister. Remove from the oven, allow to cool then tear them into pieces. Set aside.
Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente.
Place the basil in a small bowl, add the ¼ cup olive oil and process using an immersion blender – I halved the recipe and made the basil oil using a mortar and a pestle; a small processor would do the job, too.
Drain the pasta, add the olives, the reserved tomatoes, the cheese and the basil oil and gently toss the ingredients together. Serve at once.

Serves 4

Almost Greek salad

Yep, almost Greek. Because I used a different type of cheese to replace feta – queijo Minas frescal. And I used lime juice in the dressing, instead of red wine vinegar.

The verdict? I had a huge bowl of this salad. HUGE. I mean it – it was all I had for lunch, with a glass of wine. Ok, 2 glasses of wine. :)

I still want to try it with feta, but my Brazilian twist worked so well I’m submitting this salad to this Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by its creator, the lovely Kalyn, of Kalyn’s Kitchen.



Almost Greek salad
adapted from Kitchen: The Best of the Best

4 ripe tomatoes
2 Lebanese (short) cucumbers
1 red onion
175g (1 cup) Kalamata olives
½ teaspoon dried oregano
200g queijo fresco or creamy feta

Dressing:
juice of 1 small lime
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Cut the tomatoes into chunks and arrange on a serving platter.
Thickly cut the cucumbers; cut the onion in paper thin slices. Add to the tomatoes and scatter the olives over the plate. Cut the cheese in thick slices and arrange over the vegetables. Sprinkle the salad with the oregano.
Make the dressing: mix well the ingredients. Drizzle over the salad and serve.

You can present the salad as I did, inspired by one episode of Take Home Chef: mix the vegetables in a bowl, sprinkle with oregano and drizzle with the dressing.
Place amounts of salad on serving plates and top with the slices of cheese. Drizzle once more with the dressing.

Serves: 4 (as a side dish)

Tomato, hearts of palm, olive and parmesan salad with basil dressing

Every time I visit Kalyn's blog - and I just won't do it on a daily basis in case I'm sick or loaded with work - I feel like cooking everything she posts! Her food has a healthy tone and looks delicious. Hard to resist.

This is my take on one of her recipes - I have made this salad several times already and even João likes it, even though he's not into tomatoes (crazy, I know).

I used parmesan shavings instead of feta because I couldn't find it where I live. I also changed the dressing a bit.

Make sure you check the original version - you'll be glad to!

Tomato, hearts of palm, olive and parmesan salad with basil dressing

4-6 small tomatoes, sliced
1 cup hearts of palm, sliced (or more)
½ cup black olives
½ cup parmesan shavings

Basil dressing:
1 cup fresh basil leaves (packed)
extra virgin olive oil, to taste – I didn’t use a lot because I wanted a low-calorie salad
lime juice
salt
freshly ground black pepper

In salad bowl, layer tomatoes, hearts of palm, olives and parmesan.

Using a mortar and pestle, mash the basil leaves and salt together. Add the pepper, olive oil and lime juice, mix well.
Drizzle basil dressing over salad.

Serves 2

Giant stuffed steak

I was looking for something on my other blog archives when I saw a stuffed pork loin I made last year. Then I decided to make something similar, using beef instead.
There’s a dish here called “bife à rolê” that my husband likes a lot – steaks are filled with chopped carrots, bacon and green olives, secured with toothpicks and cooked in a simple broth (most people here use a pressure cooker for that). It’s similar to bracciola, except for the tomato sauce.
I created a giant “bife à rolê”, stuffed with farofa and served it with fresh homemade tomato sauce – click here and here if you’re interested in my other recipes with farofa.
Although I thought the farofa had disappeared at the end, João loved this dish.

Giant stuffed steak

450g rump/top sirloin, cut as a very large steak
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
½ small onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped bacon
2 tablespoons pitted and chopped green olives
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
salt
freshly ground black pepper
boiling water, enough to cover the beef – you may use beef stock if you like, but be careful with the amount of salt
your favorite tomato sauce

Make the farofa: heat olive oil in a small saucepan, over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until golden. Add the onion and cook until golden as well. Add the breadcrumbs, olives and parsley, season with salt and pepper, mix well and remove from heat. Set aside to cool. Place the steak open on a chopping board and season with salt and pepper. Spread the farofa on the center and roll the steak, closing all the sides so the stuffing won’t fall out. Secure with cooking string:

In a large saucepan, heat butter over high heat until it’s melted. Add the stuffed steak and cook until all the sides are evenly and nicely browned.
Add the boiling water (or stock, if using), season with a bit of salt, close the lid and cook until the beef is tender – I used a pressure cooker (in a hurry!).
Remove from the pan, cut the string and remove it.
Heat the tomato sauce and spread it over the steak.
Slice it when serving.

Serves 2 very well, with rice, potatoes or a nice salad.