Typical dish of Reggio Calabria
Reggio-style stuffed eggplants
Reggio-style stuffed eggplants are soft and generous, cut open and filled with a fragrant mixture of bread, cheese, and aromatic herbs, sometimes enriched with minced meat. After being stuffed, they are slowly cooked in tomato sauce, which envelops them and makes them juicy and intensely flavorful. The eggplant flesh becomes creamy, while the filling remains fragrant and savory. It is a hearty, convivial dish, often served as a second course or as a main dish during family lunches.
Season: Estate-Autunno€8–14
Why it matters
In Reggio Calabria, stuffed eggplants represent home cooking at its finest—the kind that smells of home and Sunday family gatherings. The dish reflects the rural and Mediterranean soul of the region, where simple ingredients are transformed into richly flavored preparations. In the city’s traditional restaurants, it is one of the most recognizable symbols of the Reggio table.
Origin story
The recipe was born in the Calabrian popular tradition, when farming families used stale bread, garden herbs, and local cheeses to fill the abundant summer eggplants. Over time, some variations introduced minced meat or cured meats into the mixture, making the dish even more substantial. Despite these evolutions, cooking the eggplants in tomato sauce remains the defining element of the Reggio version.
Typical ingredients
melanzanepane raffermopecorino o parmigianouovaaglioprezzemolobasilicosalsa di pomodorocarne macinata (facoltativa)
Find it in the Trouvenir app
Verified restaurants, maps and cultural context for every typical dish.
Download the appFree download
Take Trouvenir with you
iOS and Android. Free.
Privacy-firstCross-device syncOffline ready