Chuck Zumbrun

Tales from Skunk Hill

Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplant Parmesan, fresh out of the oven.

Eggplant Parmesan
Eggplant Parmesan

I got two eggplants at the Columbia City Farmer’s Market this weekend and eggplant parmesan is our favorite dish to make with eggplant.

This is how I make it.

Eggplant Parmesan
Plenty for 2 with leftovers

2 medium sized eggplants
oil for frying (I like to use half olive oil and half canola or other neutral oil)
flour for dredging
2 cups of your favorite tomato sauce
A couple dozen basil leaves, torn or sliced.
salt and pepper
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
8 oz mozzarella cheese (fresh is nice)

Peel the eggplants and slice into 1/2 inch thick slices
Salt the slices on both sides and let sit in a strainer for an hour
Heat your oven to 350.
Rinse the eggplant slices and pat dry
Dredge in the flour
Fry in a skillet with the oil until nicely browned on both sides (you’ll need to do 2 or 3 batches, wiping out the skillet if the flour starts to burn and adding more oil as needed)
Drain the slices on paper towels
Take a 2 quart casserole dish and lightly oil it.
Put about a 1/3 of a cup of tomato sauce in the bottom
Put a layer of eggplant, a layer of each of the cheeses, and a bit of basil
Repeat until your dish is full or you run out of ingredients, ending with sauce and cheese on top.
Bake for about 30 minutes
Let sit for another 30 minutes to cool

I’ve read some comments that mozzarella[1] is not authentic, but I can’t abide that. If eggplant parmesan[2] with mozzarella is wrong, I don’t want to be right.


1. The people who say mozzarella is not authentic are probably the same snots who insist on pronouncing it “moats AH rella” (and would use the International Phonetic Alphabet to explain how to pronounce it: m?ts??r?l?) like they just got off the boat from the old country. It’s “motts UH rella.” Don’t make me come over there and straighten you out!

2. I wish my spellchecker would quit nagging me about not capitalizing ‘parmesan.’ To me it’s a kind of cheese, not a proper noun. But I feel guilty ignoring the spellchecker, thus the seemingly random capitalization of ‘parmesan’ throughout.

4 responses to “Eggplant Parmesan”

  1. anne Avatar
    anne

    We make a baked version, dredging the eggplant in egg and bread crumbs and baking until crispy and then layering with sauce and mozzarella and fresh tomatoes and basil, as long as it’s not next to one like yours it tastes just fine. Tonight was a quinoa, beet, feta, spinach salad, surprisingly good.

  2. Mom Avatar
    Mom

    If Chuck won’t cook for you, Casa’s is second best. For some reason through the years, we have started adding browned ground beef to the sauce, unfortunately making it inedible for our vegetarian friends.

  3. chuck Avatar
    chuck

    A little Italian sausage in the sauce is tasty too.

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