Mac not connecting to external Apple CD/DVD drive

your question is kind of all over the place, but I'll take a swing.

MAC not seeing the drive in Finder - or with Disk Utility

a disc needs to be inserted into the superdrive for it to show up in either of those locations. additionally, to have it appear on your desktop, use Finder Settings > General. and put a checkmark in "External disks".

and / or you can set it to show up in finder's sidebar. use Finder Settings > Sidebar, and in the "locations" section, put a checkmark in "External disks".

and it will show up in finder's "locations"section. in this example, my disc is called "Audio CD"

Had inserted a disk to see what was on it (suspected blank) - can't eject

you can completely shut down the Mac. then start it back up using the power button and IMMEDIATELY press and hold your mouse button until the disc pops out. that usually works to eject a stuck disc.

Any thoughts on how to get MAC to recognise the drive

since you have a superdrive, on Ventura or Sonoma, you can open System Settings. if the drive is being recognized, it will appear near to the very bottom of the list of the left hand panel.

and on Monterey and before, you can open System Preferences and check. if the drive is recognized you will see a CDs & DVDs selection.

Are you using a dock? You must connect the cd drive not to a dock that gives too less power.

Connect the drive directly to your Mac instead

sorry, I was slightly off above. I had originally said "use Finder Settings > General. and put a checkmark in "External disks". as well as "and / or you can set it to show up in finder's sidebar. use Finder Settings > Sidebar, and in the "locations" section, put a checkmark in "External disks"." what I should have said was "use Finder Settings > General. and put a checkmark in "CDs DVDs and iPods". "and / or you can set it to show up in finder's sidebar. use Finder Settings > Sidebar, and in the "locations" section, put a checkmark in "CDs, DVDs, and iOS Devices".