Melitzanopita

I was looking for a tiropita (cheese pie) with eggplant in it and found this, which is mostly vegetables with a little cheese.

This Greek casserole is a nightmare for anyone with a nightshade sensitivity.  Eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes.  The only thing missing is potato.  I went ahead and put in a green bell pepper because I do love them and it's been ages since I've been brave enough to have one.

I'm mostly following the recipe from Socratic Food.  I chose it because it uses puff pastry instead of filo, and I happened to have some of the former in the freezer.  The ingredients and directions probably make more sense if you're European, so I'm cleaning it up for an American audience.  The amounts are where it really gets hinky.  Two eggplants for my half batch made way more filling than I expected.  And I'm listing diced onion by volume rather than piece.  I'm trying to do that in most of my more recent recipes, to avoid variations in size or water content of onions.

Altogether, this recipe took over two hours.  That includes prepping the vegetables and letting it sit after the oven to cool a bit.  Not all of it is active work.  You can break it up by prepping the filling first (about an hour) and doing the assembly and baking later on.

2 medium eggplants
1 green or red bell pepper, small dice
1 C diced yellow onion
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 jalapeño pepper, diced (optional)
1/2 C chopped Italian (flat leaf) parsley
1/4 C olive oil, plus more for brushing
2 Tb lemon juice
1 puff pastry sheet
flour for rolling
1 egg, beaten
4 oz crumbled feta
1/4 C grated parmesan
salt and pepper

1.  To prepare the eggplant, remove cap.  Peel, then grate either on a box grater or with the grating disc of a food processor.  Place shreds in a colander and toss with 1 tsp kosher salt.  Drizzle with lemon juice.  Let sit for 30 minutes while you prep the rest of the filling.

2.  Heat olive oil on medium in a large skillet or soup pot.  Add onion and bell pepper and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add tomatoes and jalapeño and cook until tomatoes break down, about 10 minutes.

3.  Rinse eggplant slices to remove some of the salt and squeeze out the water.  Add shreds and chopped parsley to the pot and continue to cook until eggplant breaks down and the volume of the filling is reduced by about half.  This will take about 15-20 minutes.  Taste and add salt and pepper, bearing in mind the salt content of the cheeses.  Set filling aside to cool a bit and get out the pastry sheet to defrost.

4.  After about half an hour, you should be able to unfold the pastry sheet.  Brush an 8"x8" casserole with olive oil.  Dust a work surface with flour and roll the sheet out approx 8"x16".  It will be a little wider than eight inches, but that's fine.  Cut piece in half if you wish.  What I ended up doing was cutting the middle 8" out of it and having two 4" pieces that I then cut in half.  All that did was mean I didn't have to cut them after they were placed on top.

5.  Preheat oven to 425º.  Lay one square of pastry on bottom of casserole.  It's perfectly fine if it rises a bit up the sides.  That's actually an asset.  The filling should be cool enough at this point not to instantly cook the egg or melt the cheeses.  Stir both into the eggplant mixture.  Pour filling on top of crust, spreading out evenly.  Lay other piece of pastry on top.  If it's in one piece, cut into portions, but don't cut all the way through the bottom crust.

6.  Brush top of the pastry with more olive oil.  Bake for about 30 minutes, until the crust is crispy and browned.  Allow to rest 20 minutes before cutting.  Like with a lasagna, this should be served after the filling has had a chance to set a bit.

Serves 4-6

Difficulty rating  :)