İmam Bayıldı — Print Recipe

Tender whole eggplants stuffed with a luscious slow-cooked filling of onions, tomatoes, and garlic, braised in fruity olive oil until meltingly soft.

Ingredients

1 Peel eggplants in alternating strips, cut a deep lengthwise slit in each, salt generously, and let drain thirty minutes.
2 Sauté sliced onions in half the olive oil for fifteen minutes until deeply caramelized and sweet, then add garlic slices.
3 Add diced tomatoes, sugar, salt, and pepper to the onion mixture and cook ten minutes until the tomatoes break down.
4 Squeeze excess moisture from eggplants, lightly fry in remaining oil until golden on both sides, then place in a baking dish.
5 Stuff each eggplant generously with the onion-tomato mixture, pour hot water around them, and drizzle with more olive oil.
6 Cover and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for forty-five minutes until the eggplants are completely tender and collapsing gently.

Did You Know?

Legend says the imam fainted either from the deliciousness of this dish or from shock at how much expensive olive oil his wife used to prepare it.