Moroccan Stuffed Eggplant

If you like putting something unfamiliar on the table, this Moroccan dish earns its place. Lamb or beef with rice, pine nuts, raisins and cinnamon — sweet and savory in the same bite, which is the signature of North African cooking.

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 medium eggplants
14 oz beef or lamb, cubed
1 medium onion
1 tomato
1/2 cup basmati rice
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup slivered pistachios
1/3 cup raisins
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
Chopped parsley
10–12 tomato slices
Salt
Black pepper

Method

Wash the eggplants and halve them lengthwise.

Scoop out the flesh, leaving a shell about 1/2 inch thick all around. Any thinner and they collapse in the oven.

Soak the shells in salted water for 20 minutes to draw out bitterness.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Rinse the eggplant shells, pat them dry with paper towel, and roast for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil the rice in salted water until just tender and drain well. Slightly underdone is right — it finishes cooking in the filling.

Heat the olive oil in a pan over high heat and brown the cubed meat properly on all sides. Work in batches if the pan is crowded; meat that steams will not taste roasted.

Dice the onion and add it with the crushed garlic. Cook until softened.

Peel and dice the tomato and add it along with the cinnamon, salt and pepper. Cook until the vegetables are tender and the liquid has reduced.

Stir in the lemon juice, drained rice, raisins, pine nuts and chopped parsley.

Fill the roasted eggplant shells with the mixture and lay three tomato slices over each.

Set them in a baking dish and pour hot water into the dish to a depth of about half an inch — this steams the eggplant from below and keeps it from drying. Cover tightly with foil.

Bake at 350°F for 35 minutes.

Remove the foil and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes to color the tops.

Scatter with slivered pistachios and parsley before serving.

Serve warm rather than hot. Like most stuffed vegetables, this settles as it cools and tastes better ten minutes out of the oven than straight from it.