This week’s box included: summer squash, Italian sweet peppers, giant eggplant, garlic, Kirby & salad cucumbers, red potatoes, okra (!), spaghetti squash, watermelon. You can see a photo that can help with identification on our Facebook page or check out our weekly video on Instagram.
Need storage instructions? Visit our fruit & veggie home pages. Click on the pic and a new page opens with storage instructions and a list of recipes curated by Conne over the years.
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This week’s box was a collection of summer favorites, minus the tomatoes which I hear from other farmers may be coming to the end of their season in this area. I did enjoy seeing zephyr squash, though. I remember some years when that was the only form of yellow squash Riverview was growing. I wondered if it would make a reappearance.
True confession. As much as I love our recipe trove at grassfedcow.com, sometimes I don’t want a recipe, I just want to chop things up and serve dinner. This box is perfect. Dice the squash, cut the okra into 1-inch pieces, chop the potatoes and peppers, then start some olive oil in a big skillet, saute the garlic and add the potatoes. When the cubes of potato are just about tender, add the squash, okra and peppers (peppers can go in sooner but I want them with a little crunch) and in 20 minutes or so, you have dinner, with leftovers for the next day. The only thing I’m not putting in there is the eggplant because it breaks down differently when cooked like that, the cucumbers because we love just munching on raw cucumbers and our dogs ADORE cucumbers and would gladly eat a whole one every day, and, of course, the watermelon.
For my big Italian eggplant, I’m planning the Sicilian Stuffed Eggplant below. It’s a recipe that works with Asian eggplants, too, but I find that a stuffed eggplant (and I love a stuffing with raisins) is less off-putting for those around the table who think “I don’t like eggplant.” There’s all that delicious stuffing and before they know it, they’ve enjoyed eggplant.
We have already have two stuffed eggplant recipes on the eggplant page: Stuffed Eggplant with a raisin and bulgur filling and Ratatouille Stuffed Eggplant with a farro and summer squash filling. Now we’ll have one more.
And I hope I’m not alone in saying, “Bring on the watermelon!” Delighted to find another one in today’s box.
Sicilian Stuffed Eggplant
From Colu Henry, adapted from a recipe by Jo Piazza
1 large eggplant
4 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/2 cup golden raisins, roughly chopped
1/2 cup, plus 2 tablespoons, panko breadcrumbs, divided
Kosher salt
1/4 cup almonds, roughly chopped
1/4 cup green olives, roughly chopped
1/4 cup ricotta
Juice of 1 lemon
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Slice eggplant lengthwise. Use a small sharp knife, cut about a half inch in around the sides of the eggplant. Scoop out the flesh and set the shells aside.
Chop the eggplant flesh into 1-inch pieces. Heat a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil and when it shimmers, add the eggplant, onion and the garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 4 to 6 minutes or until the eggplant has a little give to it.
Add the raisins and 1/2 cup breadcrumbs and cook for 1 to 2 minutes and stir until well combined. Season very well with salt and remove from heat.
Spoon the mixture into the eggplant shells and fill to just above the rim of the shell and top with remaining breadcrumbs. Lightly drizzle with olive oil on the top.
Place eggplants into a relatively deep baking dish with a small amount of water on the bottom (about a 1/4 inch). Cover with foil and bake for thirty minutes.
Remove foil and sprinkle with almonds and olives. Bake uncovered for another ten minutes to get the panko nice and golden on top.
Meanwhile, combine the ricotta and the lemon juice and season with salt. Remove the eggplants from the oven, plate and add dollops of ricotta to the top while they are still warm.