Receta Eggplant Parmigiana - Parmigiana di Melanzane...
Eggplant Parmigiana, this side of the Atlantic, is usually a heavy dish slathered in a thick spaghetti style sauce with tons of cheese and flavorless eggplant. In Italy one of the first things I ordered was Eggplant Parmigiana...and it was SO DIFFERENT! The sauce was fresh, lite, with a hint of garlic and fresh basil. The eggplant itself had a nutty-buttery taste and the fresh mozzarella enhanced the dish instead of smothering it...in a word? Delizioso!
In Florence we ate at Cafe Nerone, a rather dark, bohemian kind of place but the food was excellent. I ordered my first real Italian Eggplant Parmigiana and while waiting for our food to arrive we struck up a conversation with the ladies at the table next to us. We soon discovered one was a tour guide so we quizzed her about all to see and do - she was very helpful...and then she launched into how Italians love Americans, especially older American men because many can still remember G.I. Joe coming in to save their prosciutto during World War II... Of course, the mister is all to happy to talk about war, any war, but when the lady asked, "WERE YOU IN WORLD WAR TWO?" The mister's jaw fell into his antipasti! Seriously funny...For him to have been in WWII he'd have to be about 90 years old! Of course I laughed to the point of a grand mal seizure and finally gained my composure just short of having my drink squirt out my nose...but then the mister said, "That's it, I'm getting a face lift!" As if there were a scalpel big enough!!
Please allow me one more mister moment in Florence...artists routinely display their work on the ground, as seen in one of the pics above...the mister was walking along, reading the map, and did not see the paintings until he stepped onto TWO of them! I was about 10 feet ahead of him...heard the commotion and turned to see him apologizing profusely to the young artist, who was waving his arms and screaming obscenities in Italian! The two paintings were of naked women, each with a $90 euro price tag. It looked like we'd be buying them as souvenirs and I quickly ran down my list of people I was shopping for to see who I could pawn them off on...I'm not a prude but hanging paintings of nude women in my home would just be wrong...people would naturally assume they were self-portraits! The artist got on his hands and knees and began brushing off his paintings while we stood there holding our breath...finally he pronounced them okay, and shooed us off like flies...Stupido Americanos! In hindsight, IF we'd had to buy those paintings just think of the YEARS of ammunition they would have given me!!
Two souvenirs that will make it into my Will are pictured above...these dish towels, purchased on a whim (later when we looked at the receipt we discovered they weren't FOUR euros like I thought but 40 euros each...making them about $55 US DOLLARs a piece!! Stupido Americano! I hereby bequeath one to The Boy and one to The Girl) and my Vulcania terra-cotta pan that goes from the cooktop to the oven to the table - I'm IN LOVE with it! (I shall not disclose what I paid for this because IF the mister EVER read this he would turn into his alter-ego, Mt. Vesuvius and explode!)
Now, back to Eggplant Parmigiana...the one I had in Florence was exceptional, the one I ordered in Sorrento was divine as was the one I ate for lunch in Positano...but the best of them all was the one we made ourselves at Chef Andrea's class in Rome...and I was able to recreate it at home - it was every bit as good as it was in the Old Country!
- Eggplant Parmigiana - Adapted Ever-So-Slightly-From Chef Andrea Consoli
- 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 eggplants (Use the small, thinner eggplants, their seeds are not bitter)
- 1/2 cup sunflower oil (Chef Andrea advises using this oil, however I used vegetable oil because that's what I had on hand)
- 1 28 oz. can whole San Marzano tomatoes, drained and chopped or 1/2 lb. fresh Roma tomatoes, skinned, chopped (to skin a tomato quickly, dip in boiling water for 30 seconds and then in ice water, skin will practically fall off)
- 1 clove garlic, smashed but with the skin left on
- 3 tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped, divided
- 1/2 lb. fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese, grated
Make the sauce first. In a large frying pan over low heat, add the olive oil and stir in the clove of garlic, sauteing until the garlic begins to brown. Add the tomatoes to the pan and cook over low heat for about 15 minutes. Add salt and 1 tablespoon of the freshly chopped basil. Cover with lid and remove from heat.
Meanwhile, slice the eggplant as thinly as possible, into circles, less than 1/4-inch. In a large, deep pan, heat oil until very hot. In small batches, fry the eggplant, about 3 minutes on each side, until lightly golden. Remove to drain on a paper-towel lined tray. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Repeat until all of the eggplant has been cooked.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spoon a little of the sauce into the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish (if you don't happen to own a fabulous terra-cotta casserole dish!) and top the sauce with eggplant slices. Top each eggplant slice with a bit of sauce, mozzarella, fresh basil and Parmesan, then repeat, layering all the ingredients until they're gone. Bake the eggplant until hot and bubbly, about 10 minutes. Serve with additional Parmesan cheese and a sprig of basil. Serves 4 to 6. Can be served hot or cold. (I ordered cold Eggplant Parmigiana in Sorrento, with a chaser of green olives - man - that was livin!)
"He saith little that loveth much." ~ Italian Proverb