Stuffed Eggplant

Because it's difficult to find large zucchinis in stores I have made the following modification of this dish my parents often make with zucchinis (known in our family simply as the zucchini dish).

Ingredients:
- 1 large eggplant
- 50 g (2 oz) butter
- 1 cup grated cheese (e.g. Montery Jack)
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs (e.g. panko)
- milk or cream
- 1 onion
- 2-3 tomatoes
- fresh basil
- 2 cloves garlic
- salt and pepper

Melt the butter, stir in the grated cheese (any pale, not too strong cheese will do - if I'd had any I would have used Madrigal Swiss), the bread crumbs and salt and pepper - now add milk or cream until the texture is like thick oatmeal.

Rinse the eggplant, cut in half, cut out a hole (keep the cut outs) so that you leave a shell of about half an inch. Fill the hole with the prepared past and bake in the oven till the paste is golden brown. Unfortunately I still don't know the temperature in my gas oven, but I put it on medium high for half an hour.

While the eggplant is baking in the oven, in a pan add first the coarsely chopped onion, and when tender add cubes of tomato, cubes of the eggplant cut out, freshly cut basil, mashed garlic, salt and pepper - and just a little bit of water. Let simmer while the eggplant gets done in the oven.

NB: Should you try to recreate the original dish (if perhaps you have access to large zucchinis), take note that (1) the cut outs from large zucchinis consist mainly of seeds and shouldn't be saved (2) the zucchinis require longer time in the oven to become fully tender, maybe 45 minutes.