Eggplant fan in the oven with tomatoes and cheese

Step-by-step cooking

1. Step 1:

   

   How to bake eggplants? To make a fan of eggplant with tomatoes and cheese in the oven, prepare the necessary ingredients. Choose fresh eggplants, with a dense elastic skin, not wrinkled. Choose the size of vegetables to your taste. I had medium-sized eggplants.

2. Step 2:

   

   In a bowl, combine vegetable oil, garlic passed through a press, spices for vegetable dishes, salt and pepper. Mix everything together. If you use a ready-made spice mixture, be sure to read the composition on the package. Often there is already salt in it, take this into account, otherwise you risk over-salting the dish.

3. Step 3:

   

   Cut the cheese into thin slices. You can use any cheese, for example, the usual type of Russian or mozzarella for pizza, cheese or suluguni.

4. Step 4:

   

   Wash the tomatoes, dry them and cut them into thin circles. Choose juicy tomatoes, but dense. Soft fruits do not keep their shape well, in the process of slicing and cooking they will spread into a shapeless mass and spoil the appearance of the dish.

5. Step 5:

   

   Wash and dry the eggplants. On each vegetable, make longitudinal incisions with a sharp knife to make petals of the same thickness of 6-8 mm, not reaching the peduncle 2-3 cm. Please note that in some cases there is no need to remove the bitterness from eggplants - usually young vegetables are not bitter, as well as some special varieties of them. My eggplants are not bitter, so I did not sprinkle them with salt beforehand.

7. Step 6:

   

   Place the eggplants on a baking sheet lined with parchment and open like a fan, lightly pressing and straightening it with your hands.

8. Step 7:

   

   Lubricate each plate with a brush with fragrant vegetable oil.

9. Step 8:

   

   Between the petals of the fan, alternating, lay 2-3 circles of tomatoes and 2-3 plates of cheese. Brush the eggplants with the remaining vegetable oil. Place the vegetable fans in a preheated 180 ° C oven and bake for 35-50 minutes, depending on the size and ripeness of the eggplants. The exact time depends on your oven.

10. Step 9:

    

    The finished eggplant cheese should melt, but not burn, and the eggplants themselves become soft. Transfer the finished eggplant fans to plates and serve to the table. Bon appetit!