Egg Plant Bruschetta #RSC

Submitted by Chef #348486

"Ready, Set, Cook! Reynolds Wrap Contest Entry. This is a twist on traditional Bruschetta. My family and I eat low carb and we love eggplant and this just came from the love of tomatoes and basil. We have also topped zucchini and added meat to this mixture as well. Baking the eggplant on the grill or in the oven makes for a lighter dish. Hope you like it!"

 

• Ready In: 40mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 1 large eggplant
• 15 grape tomatoes
• 113.39 g cream cheese
• 3 slice bacon
• 9.85 ml basil, chopped
• 118.29 ml monterey jack cheese, shredded
• 9.85 ml crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 eggs
• 14.79 ml ranch dressing
• 473.18 ml panko breadcrumbs
• 4.92 ml salt and pepper (to taste)
• Reynolds Wrap Foil

directions

1. Fry chopped bacon in a medium pan until crisp. Drain bacon on a paper towel lined plate and set aside. Chop Basil and tomatoes and set aside. To a medium mixing bowl add the cream cheese and microwave on high for 20 seconds to soften. Add bacon, tomatoes basil and Cheese to Cream cheese mixture. Add Salt and pepper to taste. At this point I would add crushed red peppers as we like it spicy. You can also add chopped sautéed jalapenos if you like also. Set this mixture aside.
2. Slice eggplant to make circles about ½ inch thick. At this point I will cut the skin off mine but if you like the skin you can leave it on. Mix egg and ranch is a separate bowl and put panko in another. Dip eggplant in egg mixture then in panko and place on a separate dish. Once you have dipped all the eggplant you are ready to cook.
3. I like to put mine on the grill with a Reynolds wrap and parchment lined sheet. Spread out a large piece of foil and then a little bit smaller piece of parchment. Fold over the edges of foil on the parchment so that it looks like the parchment is on the inside of the foil. Place this on your pre heated grill ( you can do this in the oven also with the foil and a metal pan). Place your eggplant on the grill and let cook for about 5 minutes or until they start to brown on the bottom. Flip over and top with your tomato bacon mixture and leave on the grill until the mixture starts to melt and bubble. Serve with a salad and enjoy.

Reviews

[Laurie W.]

This was absolutely amazing! We had an egg plant in our garden and I was trying to figure out something creative to do with it. Since we had little tomatoes (I used little yellow ones) and basil we used lots of home grown ingredients. My husband said it tasted like a restaurant appetizer and I agree. Very flavorful and rich. I cut the cream cheese amount in half to make it lighter and I didn't have any eggs so I just used ranch for the dip-before-bread-crumbs. Next time I will try it with the eggs. A definite repeat!!