All About Eggplant Parmesan
What Is Eggplant Parmesan?
It is an Italian dish made with sliced and fried eggplant, parmesan cheese, and red sauce. It is often layered in a dish before being baked in the oven. However, some versions simply top the fried eggplant with cheese and sauce.
The final result
Why I made It
While I enjoy chicken parmesan, it’s always felt a bit heavy. This offers something similar, but doesn’t leave me feeling less-than-great afterwards.
I’ve also been wanting to make something with eggplant for a while. However, it’s always seemed daunting.
I knew that if I messed it up I would have to throw it out. That’s always a concern when working with a new food, and can be difficult to overcome.
Considering this was my first time working with eggplant, I think it turned out quite well.
Before the oven
What You Need to Make It
You’ll need parmesan cheese, a red sauce (like marinara,) and of course, eggplant.
For the eggplant, anything being sold as eggplant (also known as aubergine or brinjal) should work.
For the cheese, you’ll want to avoid the powdered stuff. It has its uses, but not here.
Anything being sold as “parmesan” should work, but I recommend getting something higher-end. If you can find something sold as parmigiano reggiano, that would be ideal.
For the sauce, any pre-made sauce will work. You can also make your own if you wish.
If you want to make the sauce, I recommend using the sauce from my spaghetti and meatballs recipe.
After the oven
Why You Should Make It
It’s a fairly easy recipe, and is packed with flavor. It’s also not too expensive, since most of the volume comes from eggplant.
If you haven’t used eggplant before, it also gives you a chance to make something new. If you ask me, experiencing and learning about new foods is one of the best things about cooking.
The sauce
What I Would Change
If I were to make this again, I would probably put more sauce between each “layer”. I didn’t want this swimming in sauce, but I think I used too light of a touch this time.
For reference, I only used enough sauce to lightly cover each piece of eggplant.
I would also incorporate a bit more salt somewhere. Maybe a small pinch between each layer.
You could also use more cheese, since parmesan is quite salty. However, that’ll introduce more calories and could make this too heavy.
Conclusion and Recipe
Below I’ve listed the ingredients, ingredient amounts, and steps to make this eggplant parmesan.
If you like this recipe, check out my lentil chili mac.
Ingredients
1 medium eggplant, cut into rounds*
1 tsp kosher salt, divided, 6 grams
1 cup flour, 125 grams
1 egg, beaten**
2 oz finely-shredded parmesan, about 1/4 cup or 28 grams, + more as needed***
Oil, for frying
Red sauce, as needed
Makes 4 moderate portions
Preparation
Begin preheating a pan with oil over medium heat. Use just enough oil to shallow-fry the eggplant.
On a plate, combine the flour and half the salt. In a bowl, combine the egg, cheese, and remaining salt.
Dip eggplant slices in the flour, then in the egg. Fry at ~350 for 3-5 minutes per side.
To assemble, put a small amount of sauce in the bottom of your baking dish. Follow that with a layer of eggplant, then sauce, then cheese.
Continue layering eggplant-sauce-cheese until you’re out of eggplant. Top the final layer with sauce and cheese and bake at 375 f (190 c) for about 15 minutes.
Notes
* I recommend making them about 1/4 inch thick (0.64 centimeters); use pictures for reference.
** I had just enough egg to fry all of my eggplant. You could double everything just in case, but I recommend just frying what you can and using any remnants for something else.
*** The “more as needed” is the cheese you’ll be putting between each layer. I didn’t measure that cheese, but “a light dusting” should be about right.
You can also use the top layer of cheese in the pictures as a reference.
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