HOW TO MAKE EGGPLANT PARMIGIANA (PARMIGIANA DI MELANZANE) - STEP BY STEP
Parmigiana di Melanzane is the ultimate comfort food recipe. Fried aubergines/eggplant baked in a dish with tomato sauce, basil, parmesan and mozzarella cheese.
Ingredients
- 2 large aubergines/eggplant around 700g/ 1.5 lbs
- 1.5 lbs pureed tomatoes passata chunky texture (700g)
- 1 white onion
- Small bunch of basil
- 8.8 oz mozzarella cheese cut into cubes (250g)
- ¾ cup parmesan cheese freshly grated (70g)
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- flour for dusting
- sunflower oil for frying around ½ cup/125ml
- salt and pepper to season
Instructions
- The first thing to do is to salt the aubergines or eggplants.
- Cut them into thin slices and put them in a colander inside a bowl or sink.
- Sprinkle them lightly with salt and leave them for 1 hour. This helps remove excess water and makes them easier to fry.
- While waiting, you can make a simple tomato sauce.
- Chop 1 onion finely and cook it in a little olive oil until it becomes translucent.
- Then, add the tomato passata (pureed tomatoes) and a small bunch of basil torn with your hands.
- Sprinkle in a pinch of salt and pepper, stir, and let it simmer gently for 10-15 minutes. Set it aside.
- Next, wash the aubergines/eggplant with cold water to remove the salt, and dry them with a kitchen towel or paper. Then, coat them lightly in flour, remove any excess, and fry them in sunflower oil for a few seconds on each side, then drain.
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (350F). Spoon a small amount of tomato sauce into the bottom of a baking dish and spread it around to prevent the aubergines from sticking.
- Next, add a layer of aubergines to the dish, then sprinkle parmesan cheese, add cubes of mozzarella, sprinkle some pepper, and a little more tomato sauce.
- Repeat these layers until you have one layer left (photos 9-11).
- For the final layer, spoon over the remaining tomato sauce and top with parmesan and mozzarella.
- Loosely cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes until golden and bubbling on top
Notes
- Always salt the eggplant before making this dish.
- Traditional eggplant parmigiana does not have breadcrumbs, flour is all you need.
- Cut the eggplant around ¼ inch (½cm) thick (don't worry about being accurate just keep it thin cut).
- Once you've dusted a batch of eggplant in flour fry them straight away or the eggplant will soak up the flour and it can turn mushy.
- Use the highest quality pureed tomatoes (passata) for best results (low-quality tomatoes can ruin the whole dish).
- You can prep this whole dish in advance and store it in the fridge until you are ready to bake it.
- Leftovers will store well in the fridge for 3-4 days and can be reheated in the oven (covered) until piping hot all the way through. You can also eat leftovers cold with salad.
- You can also freeze leftovers or it uncooked if prepping ahead. Use aluminum foil trays so you can reheat from frozen.