Delia Smith Aubergines Amalfitane

Delia Smith’s Aubergines Amalfitane are hollowed aubergine shells stuffed with sautéed pulp, anchovies and garlic, then topped with mozzarella and tomato slices. Baked at 180C for 40 minutes, they serve 6 as a starter.

From The Delia Collection: Italian, Delia says she first ate this in a restaurant in Amalfi and replicated it from her notebook. Anchovy, capers, mozzarella and tomato is pure Campania cooking: the same flavour base as puttanesca, built on baked aubergine instead of pasta.

What separates this from a standard stuffed aubergine is the shell technique. Delia hollows each half with a grapefruit knife, leaving a 5mm wall, then salts and drains for 45 minutes. The pulp gets cooked separately with onion and garlic before going back in.

Delia Smith Aubergines Amalfitane

Recipe by Pinch PerfectCourse: StarterCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

55

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Calories

190

kcal

Total time

1

hour 

35

minutes

From The Delia Collection: Italian. Delia copied this from a restaurant in Amalfi: anchovy, capers, mozzarella and fresh tomato baked on hollowed aubergine shells.

Ingredients

• 3 medium aubergines

• About 3-4 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 onion, chopped

• 1 large clove garlic, crushed

• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil, plus a few sprigs to garnish

• 6 tinned anchovy fillets, drained and chopped

• About 175g (6 oz) mozzarella cheese, cut into thin slices

• 3 largish, ripe tomatoes, sliced

• 1½ level tablespoons capers in vinegar, drained and chopped a little

• Salt and freshly milled black pepper

• Equipment

• Small roasting tin or baking dish, lightly oiled

Directions

• Trim the green stalks from the aubergines and slice them in half lengthways.
• Use a grapefruit knife or teaspoon to scoop out the pulpy centres, leaving a shell not less than 5mm (¼ inch) thick. Sprinkle the shells liberally with salt and leave upside down to drain for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the pulp.
• Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a saucepan and gently fry the onion until softened. Stir in the chopped aubergine pulp, crushed garlic and half the basil. Season with salt and pepper and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring now and then. After this, stir in the chopped anchovies.
• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Wipe the aubergine shells with kitchen paper and arrange them in the roasting tin or baking dish.
• Spoon the onion mixture into the shells. Arrange alternate slices of cheese and tomato on top of each aubergine half and sprinkle with the chopped capers.
• Sprinkle with the remaining basil and drizzle a little more olive oil over each. Season and bake, uncovered, on the top shelf of the oven for 40 minutes. Serve garnished with a sprig of fresh basil.

FAQs

Why does Delia salt the aubergine shells for 45 minutes?

Modern aubergines are less bitter than older varieties, so salting for bitterness is mostly outdated. But Delia isn’t salting for taste here. She’s salting to draw out moisture. Hollowed aubergine shells hold water, and that water would pool under the filling during baking, making everything soggy.

Forty-five minutes upside down lets the liquid drain out. You’ll see brown droplets collecting on the surface. Wipe the shells dry with kitchen paper before filling, exactly as Delia instructs. Skipping this step means the mozzarella and tomato sit in a puddle instead of melting onto a dry base.

What can I use instead of anchovies to keep this vegetarian?

Delia’s other stuffed aubergine recipe, the Italian Stuffed Aubergines from her Vegetarian Collection, drops the anchovies entirely and adds breadcrumbs and Parmesan instead. That’s one path. For this recipe specifically, you could replace the six anchovy fillets with a tablespoon of capers and a few sliced black olives.

The anchovies aren’t there for fishiness. They melt into the hot onion mixture and add a salty depth that’s hard to replicate. A teaspoon of miso paste stirred into the pulp filling gives a similar savoury hit without the fish, though Delia doesn’t suggest this herself. Delia’s asparagus with nearly hollandaise is another vegetarian starter from her books worth pairing with this.

Why does Delia use a grapefruit knife for hollowing?

A grapefruit knife has a curved, serrated blade that follows the inside curve of the aubergine skin. A straight knife risks puncturing the shell wall, which means filling leaks out during baking. A teaspoon works too, but it’s slower and scrapes unevenly.

The goal is a shell exactly 5mm thick. Any thinner and it collapses in the oven. Any thicker and the shell stays hard and undercooked at the centre. That 5mm is precise: thin enough to cook through in 40 minutes at 180C, thick enough to hold its shape as a serving vessel.

Can I prepare this ahead and bake later?

Yes, and it works well for dinner parties. Assemble everything up to the point of baking: stuffed shells with the mozzarella and tomato on top, covered with cling film in the fridge. They’ll hold for up to 8 hours. Add 5-10 minutes to the baking time since the dish starts cold.

The 45-minute salting and draining step is actually an advantage here. Do it in the morning, cook the filling, stuff the shells and top them, then refrigerate. When guests arrive, put them in the oven. Forty minutes later, you have a hot starter that looks like it took real effort. That’s the kind of planning Delia’s recipes are built for.

What type of mozzarella should I use?

Delia says 175g mozzarella, sliced thin. For baking, use fior di latte (cow’s milk mozzarella) rather than buffalo mozzarella. Buffalo mozzarella has more moisture and will flood the dish as it melts, undoing the draining work you did earlier.

Fior di latte melts into a golden, stretchy layer without releasing too much liquid. The cheaper supermarket mozzarella blocks actually work better here than the fresh balls packed in water. Drain and pat dry whichever you use. Slice about 3-4mm thick so each piece covers an aubergine half without sliding off.

What goes well alongside this as a starter?

Crusty Italian bread is the obvious partner. The olive oil and melted mozzarella juices pool in the baking dish, and you’ll want something to soak them up. A simple rocket salad dressed with lemon juice and olive oil cuts through the richness.

If you’re serving this before a main course, keep it light. Delia categorises this as a starter for 6, but two halves with bread and salad makes a solid light supper for 3. For a full Italian meal, follow with something that doesn’t compete: a simple pasta or grilled fish rather than another tomato-heavy dish.