Melanzane Mushroom Meal

Whether you’re a vegetarian or just looking to change up the routine, this meatless meal plan will satisfy your craving for Italian food without walking down the same old pasta-lined path! Substitute cheese and butter with vegetarian products for those who don’t eat dairy products. The dishes are quick and easy to prepare, leaving you lots more time to relax and hang out with your friends and family, and kick off your weekend in style!

Ingredients

Melanzane Mushroom Melange

-2 small or medium eggplants

-1 pkg sun dried tomatoes

-1 pkg Baby Bella mushrooms

-1 medium yellow onion

-2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

-1 Tbs red wine

-1 C tomato juice

-1 loaf Italian bread (day or so old)

-1 C mozzarella, cubed

-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

-¼ C grated parmesan cheese

-1 C finely chopped breadcrumbs (or prepackaged)

-1 Tbs butter

-1 tsp salt

-1 Tbs oregano, fresh or dried

-½ C fresh parsley, coarsely chopped

Pestoed Polenta

-Instant Polenta

-1 Tbs pesto

-Salt (optional)

-vegetable broth or water

Spinach, Radicchio, and Romaine Salad

-1-2 C fresh baby spinach

-1 head fresh radicchio

-1 medium head romaine lettuce

-1 Roma tomato, very thinly sliced

-1 bag of Caesar croutons (Marzetti, Peppridge Farms, or your favorite brand)

-Favorite dressings

While the list may look kind of daunting, all the ingredients are easily found in your local grocery, and substitution possibilities abound, so make it your own! The most time consuming part of this meal is the main dish, so start with the prep work:

1. You’ll need to re-hydrate the tomatoes, so put them in a bowl, and cover with very warm water. Soak for 20 minutes or so.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

3. For the eggplant, remove tops and bottoms, and cut into 1” cubes.

4. Halve or quarter the mushrooms, including stems

5. Peel onion, and chop coarsely

6. Strain tomatoes, and chop coarsely

7. Roughly chop a generous handful of parsley

8. Once you’ve got everything chopped, toss in a big bowl and combine

9. In a small bowl, combine tomato juice, wine, olive oil, garlic, salt and oregano. Stir well.

10. Cut or tear the loaf of bread into large pieces (2” or so). You may want to reserve some of the bread (about ¼ loaf) to make your own breadcrumbs, if you’ve got a food processor. Add to veggies.

11. Roughly cube mozzarella cheese, and add to veggies

12. Pour tomato sauce over ingredients, toss and stir to coat the veggies and bread. You want the bread to be moistened, but not drenched. If it looks a little dry, add just a bit more tomato juice, and toss again. If you get too much juice, the result will be soggy (however, the taste is still heavenly!)

13. Coat a glass casserole dish with non-stick spray, and transfer ingredients into dish.

14. Melt the butter, and add breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. Toss and stir to coat breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over top of veggies.

15. Bake 30-40 minutes, or until bubbly and browned around edges.

Now, for the Pestoed Polenta and salad. You can start 10-15 minutes before the Melanzane is finished baking. Instant polenta takes 5 minutes to cook. Just follow package directions, substituting vegetable broth for water, if you want a more substantial flavor. Salt is optional. Once polenta is cooked, stir in pesto. That’s it.

A word of caution if you’ve never made polenta: DO NOT WALK AWAY ! If you walk away, you will have polenta-plastered stovetop!

You can make the salad before or after the polenta, and either way, it’s a quick process. Rinse lettuce, radicchio and spinach. In salad bowl, roughly chop the radicchio and romaine. Add spinach, and combine. With a very sharp knife or a mandolin, cut very thin slices of tomato. Add to salad. Either combine, or arrange on top of lettuce for presentation purposes. Serve with favorite dressings and croutons on side.

This decadent combination of fresh vegetables, herbs and cheeses will satisfy the hungriest of appetites, and let you escape pizza and pasta for a night, without a lot of fuss. If you want to keep the Italian theme going, serve gelato for dessert. Enjoy!