Saturday Night Food Idea!
Posted by: annaholler on July 11th, 2009
I love eggplant Parmesan! Boil a bit of water and toss in a batch of whole wheat rigatoni noodles and warm up a loaf of Italian bread and you’ve got an amazing Italian meal. I use my own sauce when I make it, which is just 1 c. veggie broth, 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 2 cans whole tomatoes, 1 small can of tomato paste and fresh garlic, salt and pepper… simmered all day long!
To make the Parmesan you begin with one big, washed eggplant.
Slice it up thinly.
Soak it in milk. Toss a tablespoon on sugar in the milk. Some people do this overnight, but I find that an hour, covered in the fridge works just fine!
Crack two eggs in a bowl, and season your breadcrumbs (I like to season them with Parmesan cheese, garlic salt and Italian seasoning)
Coat each piece of eggplant with egg, dip it in the breadcrumbs until it is covered and then put on a separate plate. Do this until all of the eggplant is coated with breadcrumbs.
Fry the pieces in vegetable oil and minced garlic (but not olive oil because it burns too easily.) They don’t need to be saturated with oil, just lightly browned on each side.
Now, here’s where I differ from many people.
Lots of people who make a Parmesan like to cook by layering eggplant and cheese. I’m not a huge fan of cheese. When I have it, I like it to be an accent, rather than the major component to a dish. So, I actually just make layers of eggplant and sauce.
Top with sauce, fresh sliced buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil.
And I cook it for 1/2 an hour at 375. At that point I take it out, put a few spoonfuls of ricotta cheese on top, drizzle a bit of olive oil over the cheese and sprinkle a few Italian seasonings over top.
Then I turn the heat up to 400 and brown it for about 5 minutes.
July 11th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Woo-hoo! We have eggplants coming up like wildfire in the garden, purple and white. What does the milk soak do for them? I’ve never done that bit.
July 12th, 2009 at 8:54 am
The milk makes it tender and sweet! Lots of people do the same thing with salt water… but I don’t care for that. I love salt, but I feel like it takes something from the eggplant, particularly because it can be salt overkill.