We grow several varieties of eggplant at Drumlin Farm including black eggplant (the traditional variety), oriental eggplant (long and skinny), and rosa bianca (round and mostly white). Each one is unique in shape and color, but all are equally delicious, whether baked, sautéed, grilled, or roasted.
Can’t decide what to do with your eggplant? Try this recipe for eggplant parmigiana!
Nana’s Eggplant Parmigiana
Family recipes are known for their ambiguity, and this traditional dish passed down through my family for generations is no exception. Nana’s eggplant recipe is chock full of “a little of this” and “as much of that as you need.” For those of you who need precise measurements, please proceed to your nearest cookbook. Anyone up for a delectable cooking adventure, read on!
Ingredients
- Eggplant—generally, 2 medium-sized eggplants fill an 8×8 square baking dish. Your quantity depends on the size of your dish and your eggplants.
- Tomatoes—my Nana uses a 28 oz can of whole tomatoes. You could also start from fresh tomatoes and add tomato juice, salt, and basil to make the marinara.
- Basil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- garlic powder
- About 1 cup of flour
- 2-3 eggs per eggplant
- Grated Parmesan cheese
- Shredded or sliced mozzarella cheese
- Extra virgin olive oil
- salt and black pepper to taste
Directions
Prepare the Eggplant
- Peel your eggplants and cut into thin, even, round slices.
- Lay them flat between layers of paper towel. Cover with a final paper towel, and press your eggplant slices with something heavy for at least 4 hours. This step is crucial for taking out the moisture that makes eggplant bitter. Stacks of cookbooks, a full tea kettle, or kitchen appliances work well. If you can, leave them to press overnight—the more water your press out, the less bitter the eggplant will be.
Make Marinara
- Saute your onions in about 2 tbs of olive oil.
- Puree the tomatoes until no chunks remain. Once your onions are translucent, add the tomato purée.
- Add garlic powder, salt, and basil to taste. My Nana adds “a lot” of garlic powder, which I imagine to be 6-7 shakes of the bottle.
- Simmer on low for 25 minutes.
Fry the Eggplant
- Whisk the eggs with Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to make an egg dip. Put the flour into a separate small bowl nearby for dusting. Alternatively, you can put the flour in a Ziploc bag and use the “shake method” to dust several slices at once.
- Add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of your frying pan “without drowning the eggplant slices.” It’s a little less than a 1/4 inch layer. Heat the oil on medium heat.
- When the oil is ready, (“you’ll know by flicking a tiny amount of flour into the pan—if it sizzles, the oil is ready”) dust the eggplant with flour, then coat with the egg dip, and add to the pan. It helps to prepare several slices in the egg dip at once before moving them to the frying pan so that they all fry at the same time.
- Fry each slice for 1-2 minutes on each side until the outside is a light golden brown.
- Lay finished eggplant on more sheets of paper towel to soak up extra oil.
- Repeat until all the slices are fried. You may need to add more oil to the pan, more eggs to your egg dip, or more flour to your bowl as you see fit.
Put it all together
- Layer the eggplant with marinara and mozzarella cheese in your baking dish. My Nana uses sliced cheese, but here I used the shredded kind.
- Bake for 20 minutes until all the cheese is melted at 350°F.
And voilà! Authentic Italian eggplant parmigiana. Enjoy!
