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Our tasty Roasted Eggplant Recipe is a vegetarian dinner of roasted eggplant slices stuffed with mozzarella, tomato, and pesto! We’ll show you how to roast eggplant in the oven for the best texture and flavor. If you love Italian dishes like caprese, this is a perfect recipe for you!
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🍽 Equipment
For this dish, the best way to cook eggplant in the oven is in a large baking dish.
We use a 9 by 13 inch baking dish for a large eggplant. You will also need a sharp knife to slice the eggplant and tomatoes.
🍅 Stuffed Eggplant Ingredients
What makes this the best oven baked eggplant is that it’s stuffed with caprese ingredients! Mozzarella cheese, tomato slices, and pesto are perfect fillers with so much flavor.
I like to top mine off with toasted pine nuts and fresh basil after baking, too.
- Eggplant: Use a large eggplant (also known as aubergine or brinjal outside of the U.S.), or two small eggplants, for this dish.
- Mozzarella cheese: You’ll want to buy slices of cheese, and not soft burrata mozzarella, to stuff this recipe with. Buying the cheese pre-sliced makes this recipe that much easier.
- Tomato slices: For this recipe, use large beefsteak tomatoes. Beefsteak tomato is the perfect size for fitting a whole slice of tomato in between each slice of eggplant.
- Pesto: I use basil pesto in this recipe, with additional toasted pine nuts, fresh basil, and a little grated Parmesan for extra deliciousness sprinkled on after baking.
- Olive oil: You’ll want a little olive oil to drizzle on top. Not only does it help brown the eggplant, but it really brings out that caprese flavor!
🧂 Seasoning
This roasted eggplant recipe gets all of its delicious flavor from the basil pesto, mozzarella, and tomato slices.
If you like, you could also add a bit of seasoning in between each slice, such as simple salt and pepper, Italian seasoning, or even Garlic Parmesan French Fry Seasoning.
🔪 How to Cut Eggplant
For stuffed eggplant recipes, it’s important to get those perfect slices. You want them cut to the right thickness and you don’t want to cut all of the way through the bottom.
- Set your eggplant on a cutting board. To each side of the eggplant, place a guide: this could be a wooden spoon handle, chopstick, or thick wooden skewer.
- Slice your eggplant without cutting all of the way through – you want it to connect at the bottom of each slice. When your knife hits the guide, that’s when you know to stop cutting.
- Cut the eggplant into slices that are about ¼ inch thick.
TIP—Preheat your oven to 350°F while slicing the eggplant so it will be ready once you’re done preparing it to bake.
🍅 How to Stuff Eggplant
Next, you’ll stuff the eggplant with cheese, tomato, and pesto.
- Place pesto in between each slice of eggplant, followed by a slice of beefsteak tomato and a slice of mozzarella cheese.
- Continue stuffing the eggplant slices until each slice is filled with pesto, tomato, and mozzarella.
🔥 How to Roast Eggplant
Time to bake! Follow this guide for how to cook eggplant in the oven for the most perfect, delicious, and tender dish:
- Place the stuffed eggplant in a 9 by 13 inch baking dish greased lightly with olive oil. Let it lay almost flat in the dish.
- Drizzle olive oil over the eggplant, and roast at 350°F for 1 hour, until it cooks through and is nicely browned.
- Cut through the bottom of the slices to serve. Sprinkle with pine nuts, fresh basil, and grated Parmesan, if desired.
For full ingredient measurements and tips, keep scrolling to the recipe card below!
⭐ Family Foodie Tips
Oven-roasting is one of the best ways to cook eggplant, but if you’ve never cooked it before, there are a few details to look out for!
- Use the right eggplant: Look for a large eggplant to use in this recipe. The most common variety of American eggplant is generally the perfect kind to use!
- Pick a ripe eggplant: When ripe, this vegetable will be firm and shiny, without any wrinkles or squishy spots.
TOP TIP—Make it crispy: If you like, you can add breadcrumbs over the top of your eggplant before baking to crisp it up. Italian breadcrumbs are a great choice!
When it’s done, your roast sliced eggplant will be creamy, smooth, and so flavorful.
Every bite is worth savoring. I promise you’ve never had a stuffed eggplants recipe like this one. It is by far one of my favorite family dinner ideas!
🥗 What to Serve with Baked Eggplant
These roasted eggplant slices have it all: tomato, cheese, and pesto really make it a full meal! Thanks to its hearty Italian flavors, this dish pairs well with both red and white wines. I like to pair mine with sangria.
You can serve our roasted eggplant recipe as a side dish, too! If you’re not on a strictly vegetarian meal plan, it goes so well with chicken and beef dishes like our Chicken Breast and Mushroom Recipe or Homemade Bolognese Sauce with Pappardelle Pasta.
Here are a few more options for what to serve with this dish:
- Moscato Sangria
- Fresh Vegetable Salad
- Instant Pot French Bread
- Green Bean Almondine
- Foil Packet Potatoes
📖 Easy Vegetarian Recipes
Try more of our vegetarian-friendly dishes! Here are a few favorites:
- Vegetarian Enchiladas
- Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili
- Vegetarian Taco Recipe
- Vegetarian Stuffed Mushroom Recipe
- Roasted Vegetables with Cheese Sauce
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📋 Recipe
Stuffed Roasted Eggplant Recipe
Equipment
- 9×13" baking dish
Ingredients
- 1 large eggplant or 2 smaller eggplants
- 2 large beefsteak tomatoes halved and sliced
- 4 ¾ oz. mozzarella cheese not soft burrata, but mozzarella slices
- ¾ cup pesto
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
Optional for serving
- toasted pine nuts
- fresh basil leaves
- grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Slice 1 large eggplant almost all of the way through into slices that are about ¼-inch thick, leaving them connected near the bottom.Halve and slice 2 large beefsteak tomatoes.
- Place a heaping 1 tsp. or so of pesto in between each slice, followed by a slice of beefsteak tomato and a slice of mozzarella cheese.
- Continue stuffing the eggplant slices until each slice is filled with pesto, tomato, and mozzarella.
- Place the stuffed eggplant in a 9 by 13 inch baking dish greased with olive oil. Let it lay almost flat in the dish.Drizzle olive oil over the eggplant. Roast at 350°F for 1 hour, until it cooks through and is nicely browned.
- Cut through the bottom of the slices to serve. Sprinkle with pine nuts, fresh basil, and Parmesan.
jo_jo_ba says
Now I REALLY wish our eggplants had grown this summer!
Cindy Kerschner says
So elegant looking!
Wendy Klik says
What a gorgeous dish!
Eileen Gray says
Wow, that is an impressive dish!
Nettie Moore says
A real show stopper! Nettie
David Crowley says
What a beautiful vegetable dish!
Alix P Lindstrom says
Do you think I could make this with marinara sauce instead of pesto?
Isabel Laessig says
We don’t see why not. Let us know how it turns out.
Sheena says
Really tasty but i will make slimmer hasselback slices next time as the middle was less cooked and also put a bit more pesto on both sides of the slices. 😋😋😋