Stacked aubergine, tomato and mozzarella

Another recipe from the 'CookSmart Vegetarian', a Octopus Publishing Group publication.
The ingredient combination works really well. However, I wonder if baking the stacks was needed at all. Perhaps putting the stacks together and topping with pesto would be enough!

Serves: 2 persons.

Ingredients:

• For the pile:
• 1 large aubergine, sliced around 1 cm thick
• 3 tomatoes, sliced around 1 cm thick
• 2 mozzarella balls, sliced around 1 cm thick
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• For the pesto:
• See May 2020 recipe: pesto pasta.

Method:

• Grill the aubergine slices in the oven, 5 min each side.
  
  
  
  
• Put 1 aubergine slice on an ovenproof tray. Add a tomato slice on top and a mozzarella slice on top of the tomato. Add another layer of aubergine, tomato and mozzarella on the top of the first layer. Add salt and pepper to each layer. Use a skewer to stabilise the stack.
  
  
  
  
• Continue building stacks until there are no more ingredients left. There will be some cheese and tomato left - munch it!
  
• Bake the stacks in a 190°C oven for 10 min. I was not impressed with the look of the stacks when they came out of the oven. The cheese had melted! I wonder if 5 min are enough or, perhaps, don't bake it at all!
  
• Serve with a generous spoon of pesto on top of each stack. Add more pesto to the plate as you'll need more! I served the stacks with couscous for an easy and quick meal.