Eggplant Parmigiana

Ingredients

FOR FRYING

Preparation

Just saying it will get you a standing ovation at the table.Eggplant Parmigiana is the queen of morale-boosting dishes. It’s a recipe common to regions in the north and south of Italy, all of which claim its birthplace: Emilia-Romagna, Campania (parmigiana ’e mulignane) and Sicily (parmiciana or patrociane) with some variations in the ingredients and the ways of assembling it, but all absolutely fantastic! Have you ever wondered where the name of this dish comes from? The name “parmigiana” is said to come from the Sicilian “parmiciana”, which in dialect refers to blinds made of wooden slats stacked on top of each other: just think of the way the eggplant slices are arranged in the dish to see the similarity.With just a few ingredients like tomatoes, eggplant, basil and cheese, you get a flavorful dish that is a symbol of Mediterranean cuisine!

To make the eggplant parmigiana, start with the sauce. Peel and chop the onion

Add enough olive oil to a pot to cover the bottom and heat
Then add the onion to the pot. Let it brown for a couple of minutes, stirring often so it doesn’t burn, then add the tomato purée
Season with salt and add the basil leaves
Add a little water to the container the tomato purée was in to rinse it, pouring the water into the pot. Let this cook for 45-50 minutes over low heat
In the meantime, cut the fiordilatte cheese into small cubes, setting aside one piece that you’ll use at the end
Place the cheese cubes to drain in a colander positioned in a bowl
then cover with plastic wrap and set aside: This will allow the excess liquid to drain off
Now, turn to the eggplant: Wash and trim them
Cut them lengthwise into slices around 1/4 inch (4-5 mm) thick
Once sliced, fry the eggplant in peanut oil that’s been heated to 340°F (170°C), immersing a few slices at a time
As soon as they’ve turned slightly golden, drain on a tray lined with paper towel
If you run out of space on the tray, place more paper towel
on top of the eggplant that are draining to create another layer with the newly fried eggplant
Lastly, move on to the assembly: Start by adding some of the tomato sauce to a 9×13-inch (20×30-cm) baking dish
Form the first layer by arranging the fried eggplant slices in the dish
then spooning over more sauce
spreading it evenly, and sprinkling in cubes of fiordilatte
Sprinkle with grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
and some basil leaves
Start a new layer by adding more tomato sauce
and fried eggplant slices, which should be arranged facing opposite directions. Then add more cheese and basil leaves
Repeat these steps until you reach the last layer of eggplant
again adding sauce and the fiordilatte that you set aside, torn into pieces by hand
Finish off with grated Parmigiano cheese
and bake in a conventional oven preheated to 390°F (200°C) for around 30 minutes
When the eggplant parmigiana is finished baking, let it rest for 15-20 minutes before serving

Storage

Store your eggplant parmigiana in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap, for 1-2 days.It can be frozen after cooking, maybe already divided into portions, and defrosted in the fridge as needed before reheating.

Tips

The ideal eggplants for this recipe are large, oval-shaped, with a nice, shiny dark purple color, and they should be firm to the touch – not too hard or too soft. Even long Neapolitan eggplants work well, though. Since the eggplant varieties you can find nowadays are much less bitter than in the past, you can skip the step of salting and draining the eggplant. You can still do it if you like, remembering to rinse them well before use in the recipe. As for the different variations of the recipe, some people flour their eggplant or dip them in egg, or do both. For the cheese you use, on the other hand, you can go for caciocavallo instead of fiordilatte, like they do in Sicily or Calabria.You might also want to try adding a tasty extra such as sliced hard-boiled eggs.

Source: Giallo Zafferano