Melanzane Fournou (aubergines baked in a tomato sauce with cheese)

This was the star dish from my recent Greek trip so I'll have a stab at recreating it here... It turned out quite well and really tasted like the original. I merged together 2 slightly different approaches here. One school of thought might use feta mixed in with sauce and then baked; another approach might be to top the dish with some grated cheese such as Gruyere. I decided to do both, except I used cheddar instead of Gruyere just because that's what I had in. 

You need to go for tomatoes which have been ripened and kissed by the sun - that's why they taste so good in Greece. If they're not in season, maybe tinned ones might work. NEVER EVER buy tomatoes in winter - they'll be the tasteless artificial ones imported from Holland. No thanks!

Serves: 2
Cost per person: 6.50 zl 

Damn! I'm over budget!! Oh well......

Ingredients:

- 2 medium aubergines
- 2 big ripe juicy tomatoes, skinned and pureed
- 1 onion sliced
- 1-2 cloves of garlic roughly chopped
- a pinch of dried thyme (or fresh if you've got it)
- a pinch of dried oregano (or fresh if you've got it)
- a couple of sprigs of rosemary
- lashings of olive oil!
- a handful of crumbled feta
- a handful of grated cheddar/ Gruyere
- a baguette/ whatever bread you fancy

Let's prep and cook!

1. Remove the skins from the tomatoes and puree
2. Slice up the aubergines fairly thick and salt them in a bowl for 30 minutes. Rinse

3. Slice up the onions and chop up the garlic

4. Heat up a pan. Glug in some olive oil and get the onions in. Medium heat. 

5. After around 5-7 minutes, get the garlic in. Cook down till the onions start to slightly brown.

6. Tomato puree in. Herbs. Season with black pepper. Add a pinch of salt too if necessary. Cover and cook down for around 10 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, wash and drain the aubergines. Glug some olive oil over them.

8. Spread them on a baking tray. Glug a little more oil over them. Don't be shy! Add a couple of sprigs of rosemary - this will infuse a nice flavour while baking. Put in the oven under the grill setting (good and hot!) for about 5 minutes each side.

9. After around 5 minutes, turn over and grill the other side.

10. Glug a little olive oil into a baking dish. Add a little of the tomato sauce.

11. Layer in around half the aubergines with the crumbled feta.

12. Layer in some more sauce, the rest of the aubergines and then the rest of the sauce. Top with the grated cheddar.

13. Bake at 180 degrees until the cheese has melted and the whole dish is bubbling away happily.

14. Enjoy with some baguette to mop up those juices! Yum!

Costs:

- aubergines: 4 zl
- tomatoes: 4 zl
- baguette: 1 zl
- cheese: 2.5 zl
- the rest: 1.5 zl

Total: 13 zl
Serves: 2
Per person: 6.50 zl