Grilled Eggplant, Tomatoes, and Burrata Platter #SundayFunday

Today the #SundayFunday writers are sharing eggplant recipes.

Stacy of Food Lust People Love, Sue of Palatable Pastime, Rebekah of Making Miracles, and Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm coordinate this low-stress group; we only participate when we are inspired. Sue is hosting this week. Here's our line-up of eggplant dishes...

• Air Fryer Eggplant Pizza (Aubergine or Brinjal Pizza) by Cook with Renu

• Brinjal And Tomato Chutney by Sneha's Recipe

• Dahi Baingan by Mayuri's Jikoni

• Eggplant Gratin by Karen's Kitchen Stories

• Griddled Eggplant Salad by Food Lust People Love

• Grilled Eggplant, Tomatoes, and Burrata Platter by Culinary Cam (you're here)

• Melitzanosalata (Greek Eggplant Dip) by A Day in the Life on the Farm

• Szechuan Eggplant by Palatable Pastime

Grilled Eggplant, Tomatoes, and Burrata Platter

In case you are unfamiliar, burrata is a fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream. The outer shell is solid mozzarella while the inside is a mixture of mozzarella and cream. In Italian burrata means "buttered."

Ingredients

• 1 pound organic, stem-on tomatoes, sliced in half

• 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

• freshly ground salt

• freshly ground pepper

• 5 large garlic cloves, crushed

• 2 organic globe eggplant, sliced into thick coins

• olive oil, for brushing + more for grill

• organic fresh basil leaves

• 2 balls burrata cheese , room temperature and quartered

Procedure

Prepare a gas or charcoal grill for high heat cooking; a grill pan on the stove would also work.

Chop off the top and bottom of the eggplants and slice into 1/2-inch rounds. Brush each coin generously with olive oil on both sides. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

When grill is ready, cook the eggplant until it's softened, approximately 5 minutes per side. If eggplant seems dry, brush on a little more oil while cooking. Remove from grill to a plate, tent loosely with foil, and set aside.

Grill the tomatoes until they just have a nice char on the cut side. Set aside.

Assemble dish by arranging the grilled eggplants and tomatoes on a platter. Nestle in chunks of burrata cheese. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil. Add a few basil leaves for garnish.

Serve warm with crusty bread and a good red wine.

Other Eggplant Deliciousness

I love eggplant. In fact I did an entire dinner - from appetizer to dessert - with eggplants once. I will have to re-do some of those, especially the Melanzane al Cioccolato (photograph directly above and, yes, that does mean 'eggplant with chocolate;, but here's my recent favorite way to serve eggplant: Eggplant Char Siu-Style.

That's a wrap for my eggplant offering. The group will return next week to share salad recipes. I can't wait for that one. We eat a lot of salads. A. Lot. It'll be nice to get some new ideas.