Ingredients: 2 medium eggplants, stems removed and sliced in half length-wise Greek tomato sauce (recipe is here) good grating cheese: Kefalotiri, Mizithra, Kasseri, Parmigiano, Romano, etc. salt pepper olive oil
Preheat oven to 350-365 degrees F.
With a spoon, scoop out the seeds from the eggplant. Discard. Scoop out most of the pulp from the eggplant halves without breaking through their skins, leaving a pulp rim of 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick inside. Chop up (or process) the removed pulp. In a bowl, combine the pulp with enough of the Greek tomato sauce to coat - thoroughly.
Place the eggplant halves in an 9 inch by 11 inch Pyrex baking dish. Fill each half with a suitable amount of the pulp/sauce mixture. Spoon more sauce over each filled, eggplant half. Sprinkle on a good mound of cheese, salt and pepper to taste overtop of each half, and drizzle them with olive oil.
Roast until very tender, about an hour. Serve.
Variation: Many authentic recipes call for the addition of a white sauce. To create this dish with a white sauce, make the recipe below. Then, follow the directions above, but ladle the white sauce over the eggplant halves before adding the grated cheese.
Ingredients: 2 1/2 Tbl butter 2 Tbl flour 1 cup warm whole milk salt freshly grated nutmeg 1 egg yolk
Heat up a thick, aluminium pan over a medium flame. Melt the butter. Sprinkle the flour in, while whisking constantly with a wire whip. Cook until the roux is lightly toasted. Pitch in the milk and vigourously whip until well-combined. Reduce this mixture over a medium flame, stirring periodically. When sauce becomes thick and bubbly, add freshly grated nutmeg. Remove the pan from heat. Temper the egg by removing a ladle of the sauce to a dish and introduce the beaten egg by whipping strenuously. Return sauce/egg mixture to the pan and whip some more.