‘Falastin’ Baked Kofta with Eggplant and Tomato

Adapted from Falastin: a Cookbook, by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley. We reviewed the book in July 2020.

This dish is pure, delicious comfort. As Tamimi and Wigley mention in their headnote, it is lovely — or maybe even better — the next day.

Makes 12 kofta stacks; serves six as a main dish or eight to twelve as a side.

Ingredients

For the eggplants

2 or 3 globe eggplants, as long and narrow as you can find, or 3 or 4 Italian eggplants (one pound, 14 ounces), peeled in alternate long strips to look like a zebra, then cut crosswise into 12 slices, about 1 inch thick

Salt and black pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

For the tomato sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped (about one cup)

6 garlic cloves, crushed

2 teaspoons tomato paste

One 14-ounce can chopped tomatoes

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon dried mint

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper (or 1/4 teaspoon regular chile flakes)

1/4 cup water

Salt and black pepper

For the kofta

3/4 pound (350 grams) ground beef (15 to 20% fat)

3/4 pound ounce (350 grams) ground lamb (15 to 20% fat)

3/4 cup very finely chopped parsley (30 grams)

1 onion, coarsely grated (3/4 cup, 120 grams)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 to 3 plum tomatoes, coarsely grated and skins discarded (1 cup, 200 grams)

1 teaspoon tomato paste

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper (or 1/4 teaspoon regular chile flakes)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and black pepper

For assembly

3 large tomatoes, cut crosswise into 12 slices, about 1/2 Inch thick

1 serrano chile or jalapeño, thinly sliced

1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves

12 small basil leaves, whole (or fewer larger leaves, torn)

1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted in a dry pan until just golden

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Place the eggplant slices in a large bowl and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper. Pour in the oil, mix well to coat the slices, then spread them out on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from the oven and set aside. Decrease the oven temperature to 425 degrees.

3. While the eggplants are roasting, make the tomato sauce. Place the oil in a medium saucepan and heat it over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook for about six minutes, stirring occasionally, until it has softened and lightly browned. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for another 30 seconds. Stir in the canned tomatoes, sugar, mint, Aleppo pepper or chile flakes, water, 1/2 teaspoon salt and a good grind of black pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium-low and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick and rich. Remove from the heat and set aside until ready to use.

3. To make the kofta, put the beef, lamb, parsley, onion, garlic, grated tomatoes, tomato paste, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, Aleppo pepper and olive oil into a large bowl with 1 3/4 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper. Mix well, then divide the mixture into 12 large balls. Shape into patties about 3 inches wide and set aside.

4. Arrange the slices of eggplant in a single layer on the bottom of a flameproof roasting pan (or a large, deep non-flameproof baking dish about 9 by 13 inches, if that’s what you have; using something non-flameproof will add one small step). Place one kofta patty on top of each slice and top each with a slice of tomato, creating a kind of sandwich. Spoon a generous 1 tablespoon of the thick tomato sauce on top of each sandwich, spreading it out slightly so that it drizzles down the sides. Sprinkle with the green chile, cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Then increase the oven temperature to 475 degrees, remove the foil and bake for a final 18 minutes.

5. Remove the roasting pan from the oven and, using a spatula, lift the kofta out of the liquid (don’t discard the liquid, though), trying to keep the eggplant slices intact. Place on a large platter or individual serving plates.

6. Place the roasting pan on the stove over high heat, add 1/2 cup of water, and deglaze the pan, scraping up the bits clinging to the pan. Bring to a boil as you scrape, and cook for 7 or 8 minutes, stirring frequently, until the liquid has thickened and reduced by half. (If you’re using a non-flameproof baking dish, then pour the cooking juices from the pan into a medium sauté pan without adding water, and cook over high heat, stirring frequently, until it has thickened and reduced by half.) Spoon the sauce over the kofta, sprinkle with the cilantro, top each kofta with a basil leaf and sprinkle with the pine nuts. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe notes

• As is with the case in a number of the recipes in Falastin, there is a disconnect between the weight of certain ingredients called for and their volume or number. The original recipe calls for 2 very large or 3 large eggplants, “as wide as possible,” which it says should weigh 1 pound 14 ounces. I bought 2 very large and wide ones, and only once I got home did I realize they weighed nearly 3 pounds. I also realized the authors must have been talking about a different variety than the giant globe eggplants common in the U.S., as each slice is only supposed to be kofta-sized — in other words, not much bigger than 3 inches diameter. Had I known that, I would have selected a thinner variety I’d spotted at the same market; I think it must have been Italian eggplant. Four of those would have been perfect. The slices I cut out from the top and bottom of the globe eggplants worked fine, but the slices in the middle were so large I had to carve them down. I adjusted the eggplants called for accordingly.

• The original recipe called for 3 to 4 plum tomatoes, weighing 200 grams. Again, the American plums seem to be larger; I used two, which weighed slightly more than 200 grams.

• The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups (30 grams) parsley, very finely chopped. It seems that is meant to mean parsley with a volume of 1 1/2 cups before it is chopped; once chopped, 30 grams of parsley measured 3/4 cup. I adjusted the ingredient to avoid confusion.

• To bake the kofta sandwiches, Tamimi and Wigley call for a baking dish of the specified size, from which you then transfer the pan juices to reduce. I preferred to use a roasting pan, so I could deglaze the pan — which has benefit of adding the flavor from browned bits, as well as winding up with one less pan to clean. Rather than adding wine to deglaze, which would add flavor and probably not be culturally appropriate, I used water.