eggplant zucchini bake

Ani and mom Isgouhi back in the kitchen for a weekend family kitchen dinner. bob had grabbed a bag of 4 eggplants at Costco for unknown purposing that morning. Some zucchini were left hanging around in the fridge. Their imagination went to work. [Not the zucchini, not known for their imagination.] Ani remembered a Rachel Ray suggestion to bake/roast the veggies first. More healthy. Instead of a pasta sauce, they decided to serve this sort of deconstructed veggie stew on Armenian rice, but it would work great for a pasta sauce.

bob was really impressed. Everyone else seemed to love it too.

ingredients

1.3–1.5 lb ground beef (we used 80 percent)

4 smallish to medium eggplants or equivalent

3 or 4 zucchini

2 butter gold potatoes, peeled

1 28 oz can  peeled plum tomatoes

1 heaping T pepper paste

2 heaping T tomato paste

5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 medium onion, chopped

2-3 T olive oil

1/2 heaping t allspice (Middle Eastern 7 spice mix)

1/4 heaping t red pepper flakes

salt and freshly ground black pepper

instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Peel the eggplants and roughly chop. Roughly chop the zucchini. Peel and cube the potatoes.
3. Toss the eggplants with olive oil, salt and pepper and spread out on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.
4. Same treatment for the zucchini and potatoes.
5. Bake about 20-30 minutes, then broil until browned, one cookie sheet at a time.
6. Meanwhile brown the meat first (toss in a little salt to bring out the liquid?) in a nonstick pot until liquid is evaporated, about 10 minutes.
7. Add in the onion and garlic and cook until softened.
8. Add pepper and tomato paste and hand crushed tomatoes, the spices and stir around. Taste for the spices and adjust if necessary. bob is somewhat spice insensitive, so ani or her mom handle this when they are around.
9. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes on medium heat.
10. Put half the sauce in a large rectangular nonstick pan, then layer with the roasted veggies, and then the remaining half of the sauce, and bake 10 minutes. Then turn down to 250 degrees F to keep warm until served.
11. May be incorporated into cooked pasta like mezzi rigatoni or other favorite shapes, or served with/over a rice dish like Armenian rice.

notes

1.  Illustrations available.