These are three of my new favorite dishes (even more so than the butternut squash pasta). Not only are they incredibly delicious and satisfying, but you can cook them all in the oven with minimal prep and effort (although they need to bake for over an hour, so plan to sit down with a glass of wine and a good book while your house fills with the smell of roasting deliciousness).
The tomatoes are stuffed with arborio rice seasoned with garlic and onion and all kinds of savory herbs, and they're topped with breadcrumbs and drizzled with olive oil so they have this lovely crispy layer on top, but are almost creamy inside. The potatoes are roasted in the pan alongside the tomatoes, and develop this lovely tomato-ey tang to complement the crisp roasted flavor. The eggplant is simply to die for, dahling, I kid you not.
The stuffed tomato recipe is adapted from The Wednesday Chef, Luisa Weise, who writes one of my favorite blogs. Seriously, you read this blog and wish this girl was your friend and that you could go hang out in her kitchen and help her cook, because you know you would come away just feeling all pleasant and happy and like the world is not such a bad place after all, then you would take a nice little nap, and doubtless there would be some yummy treat to eat when you woke up.
The eggplant recipe is from our beautiful and talented friend Gina. She and her sister shared a plate of eggplant in Rome that was so amazing, they ordered two more at the same meal, and Gina has since figured out how to replicate that Roman meal. Since she served it to us a couple weeks ago, I've probably made this eggplant dish about 5 or 6 times. In fact, I have a confession to make. Two weeks ago when my parents came over, mid-afternoon, I had made some eggplant and put aside a small plate for them to taste. But then R* and I ate it all before they got to the house, and nary a word was said about the eggplant to my poor parents. Sorry Mom and Dad!!!! I promise to make this for you at our next meeting!
Stuffed Tomatoes and Roasted Potatoes (a la Luisa Weise)
4 medium tomatoes
1 pound potatoes (Yukon are the creamiest, but I also love red-skinned)
1 small Vidalia onion
3 to 4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup bread crumbs
4 Tbsp olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Fresh basil and oregano
Fresh rosemary
Parmesan cheese
1. To start, heat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Take 4 medium tomatoes (the fresher and redder, the better. I've found the vine-ripened kind at the store the best, now that all the farmer's market tomatoes are pretty much gone), cut the tops off and scoop out the insides using a paring knife and a spoon. Put all the insides - juice, seeds and flesh - in a medium bowl. Put the hollowed-out tomatoes in a lightly-oiled roasting pan.
3. Dice a small onion and several cloves of garlic, and saute them in 2 Tbsp olive oil (just a few minutes).
4. Add 1/3 cup of arborio rice to the pan and stir for a few minutes. The rice will absorb the oil and brown just a tiny bit.
5. In the meantime, dice the fleshy parts of the tomatoe insides. Then add all the tomatoe insides to the rice, plus 1/3 cup of water, and chopped fresh basil and oregano to taste.
6. Lower the heat and simmer the rice, covered, for 10 minutes.
7. Slice the potatoes into 1/4-inch thick slices. Toss with 2 Tbsp olive oil and fresh chopped rosemary (or dried).
8. Spoon the par-cooked rice into the tomatoes, top each tomatoe with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese and drizzle with olive oil.
9. Arrange the sliced potatoes around the tomatoes. Sprinkle the potatoes with salt and pepper, to taste.
Bake for an hour and 15 minutes. The tomatoes will shrivel a little on the outside. The potatoes should be cooked through.
Eggplant a la Gina
There are two ways to cook this dish: oven or pan. 
If you have a large, non-stick pan, I think it is easiest to fry the eggplant. I only have stainless steel pans and sticking is a problem, so I pop the eggplant in the oven and flip them once or twice. Either way, the recipe is incredibly simple.
You will need:
4 baby or 2 medium eggplant, thinly sliced
3 to 4 Tbsp olive oil
coarse salt to taste (Kosher or sea salt)
Directions:
Slice the eggplant as thinly as you possibly can. If you have little half-pieces of shaved eggplant, that's great. They'll turn into little eggplant chips. If you slice too thickly, the eggplant will get mushy, and the only time eggplant should be mushy is if you're making baba ghanouj, which you're not, so stop it.
If frying:
Add a Tbsp of olive oil to the pan and heat on medium. Then add your eggplant in batches; you want to be able to sautee it and allow it to soak up the olive oil. Continue adding a tsp of oil here and there as needed to keep the eggplant looking moist, but beware of over-sogging. The eggplant will release moisture as it cooks, and you don't want your eggplant drowning in water and oil. You want it to brown and crisp in the pan. Sprinkle each batch with a shake of coarse salt (kosher or sea salt work best). Once the eggplant pieces start turning brown, remove the eggplant to a dish covered with a paper towel, to drain the oil. Taste and salt again if necessary.
If baking:
Turn the oven up to 400 degrees. Put the sliced eggplant in a bowl, drizzle with 2 to 3 Tbsp of olive oil, and toss to coat. Arrange the eggplant in a lightly-oiled cookie pan or shallow roasting pan, in a thin layer (single layers work best). Sprinkle with coarse salt. Put the eggplant in the oven and set the timer for 5 minutes. Take out after 5 minutes and flip the eggplant; drizzle dry pieces with more olive oil if needed. Set the timer for 6 minutes. The eggplant should be cooked through, with some pieces brown and crispy. If not, stir the eggplant around and put it back in the oven for another 2 minutes or so. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.
Bon appetit!
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