One of my all-time favourites and a guaranteed crowd pleaser! I’m not Italian, so I can’t say that this is an authentic version of the Italian classic, but I promise it’s delicious. It might be tempting to serve this with meat, but I’m telling you, it’s not necessary. There is a ton of cheese in this recipe, and each slice of eggplant is fried in oil. It’s heavy enough on its own, and deserves to be the center of attention.
The only regret I have with this dish is the usage of paper towels. This is literally the only time Evan and I ever have paper towel in the house, but I have yet to find an alternative. I’ve tried sweating my eggplants, along with drizzling them with oil before roasting, but nothing works as well as this little trick I picked up from J. Kenji López-Alt’s, “The Food Lab”. Since this dish is fried, I really like the fact that the paper towel technique does not use any additional oil, and the eggplants come out perfect and velvety every time. It’s really important to either sweat or roast your eggplants before using them, as they have high water content and can leave your dish soupy and bitter.
Finally, this will turn out best if you use homemade red sauce, but a fine quality store-bought sauce will suffice. My personal favourite is spicy Arrabbiata! I also like to make my own breadcrumbs, but that’s just me being picky. Store-bought breadcrumbs or Panko will be fine, just make sure to buy them plain.
Eggplant Parmesan
Ingredients
- 2 Medium Eggplants
- 650 ml Homemade Tomato Sauce, or fine quality store-bought
- 1/3 Cup Fresh Basil, ripped
- 250 g Fresh Mozzarella, sliced thin
- 1 1/2 Cups Parmesan, freshly grated
- 2 Cups Plain Breadcrumbs, or Panko
- 2 Tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 Tbsp Dried Oregano
- 1 Tbsp Dried Basil
- 2 Tsp Salt
- Pepper
- Approx. 1 1/2 Cups Grapeseed or Avocado Oil
Instructions
- Note: I use a 12″ cast iron skillet to both fry the eggplants and bake the entire dish. If you do not have a cast iron skillet, you can fry using a regular pan and bake in a medium-size casserole dish.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, Fahrenheit. Slice eggplants horizontally into 1/2 inch pieces, and salt both sides. Line a cookie sheet with paper towel and place one layer of eggplant slices on top. Cover with one more layer of paper towel, and place a second cookie sheet (ideally a heavy one) overtop. If your cookie sheets are light, place a cast iron skillet or some other heavy, oven-safe, item on top. Place in oven and allow to cook for 25 minutes.
- Once finished, remove from oven and carefully pull the paper towel from eggplants. Carefully remove all eggplant slices and set aside to cool. If you need to do a second round of eggplants, repeat whole process with new paper towel.
- Create an assembly line with three bowls. Add flour to the first, and whisked eggs to the second. In the third bowl, combine breadcrumbs, oregano, basil, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and 3/4 cup of parmesan. Wide/shallow bowls will be a bit easier to work with.
- Note: The key to breading the eggplants is to always keep one hand dry and the other wet. The wet hand should never touch the dry ingredients, and vice versa (the eggplant qualifies as wet). This is important because once wet and dry ingredients cross paths, you’ll build a thick layer of sticky breadcrumbs on your fingers, which pull breading from the eggplants.
- Start by lowering a slice of eggplant into the flour. Cover completely on both sides and shake off excess. Douse in egg and carefully allow for excess to run off. Finish by thoroughly coating the slice with breadcrumbs on both sides, and set aside. Repeat with remaining slices.
- In a cast iron skillet, heat about a quarter inch of oil over medium-high heat. Once hot (but not smoking), lower one round of eggplants slices into the oil (about 3 or 4). Oil should sizzle and bubble upon entry. Be very careful, as the oil can spatter. Since the breading and eggplants are quite delicate, I lower them into the oil CAREFULLY with one hand and then switch to tongs, in order to flip. The first round will take the longest, but will still only take minutes. If they’re floppy and difficult to grab with tongs, they probably aren’t ready. Once they begin to hold slightly firm and are a light golden-brown, flip and repeat on the other side. Careful not to burn! Once finished, set on a cooling rack or a towel to allow for oil runoff. Lower stove to medium heat and repeat process, adjusting the temperature to keep smoking to a minimum and eggplants from burning. After the first batch of eggplants, they will brown extremely quickly (approximately 10-20 seconds). Check them frequently.
- Discard oil and wash/dry cast iron.
- Reduce heat to 400 degrees, Fahrenheit.
- Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the skillet, followed by one layer of eggplants. Spread a thicker layer of sauce and then scatter less than half of the thinly sliced mozzarella over top (save extra for the top layer). Sprinkle with half of the remaining parmesan, followed by half of the freshly ripped basil. Repeat the whole process one last time, finishing the remainder of the ingredients.
- Place the dish in the oven, covered, for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the cover and allow to cook for 10 more minutes. At this point, if you’d like to crisp the cheese further, broil and watch carefully until cheese is at your desired consistency.
- Serve with homemade garlic bread, and ENJOY!
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