Stuffed eggplants

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 2 eggplant(s), small to medium sized
• 2 pairs of raw bratwursts (about the size of Nuremberg sausages, but not pre-cooked)
• 1 large dumpling (bacon dumpling) or two smaller ones, uncooked
• ½ m.-sized onion(s)
• 1 tomato(s)
• 2 cloves garlic
• Cayenne pepper
• oregano
• salt and pepper

Instructions

Working time approx. 15 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 45 minutes

Use up leftover bacon dumplings or sausages

Preheat the oven to 200°C fan/convection oven. Halve the eggplants lengthwise and hollow out slightly. This should create a hollow for the filling, but not compromise the stability of the eggplant halves. Cut the hollowed-out eggplant flesh into small pieces and place in a bowl. Add the diced onion, diced tomato (deseed these before adding), grated garlic cloves, and the sausage meat or, alternatively, the finely diced bacon dumpling to the eggplant pieces. Season everything with cayenne pepper, oregano, salt, and pepper (I personally found a noticeable spiciness in the filling very tasty). Mix everything well, then fry briefly in a pan over high heat until the flesh, in particular, becomes a little crispier but not necessarily cooked through. Arrange the hollowed-out eggplant halves on a baking sheet or oven rack lined with baking paper and add the filling. Roast in a hot oven for about 15-20 minutes; the filling should take on some color and crispiness on top, and the eggplant halves should look cooked through. This recipe was a spontaneous idea after I had leftover sausage and bacon dumplings and didn’t want to prepare them the traditional way. A mixture of sausage and bacon dumplings in the filling would also be very delicious.