Sunday, July 10, 2005

Eggplant Parmesan

Those beautiful eggplant that we got at the farm stand last week? 

They got used last night.  I made an eggplant parmesan for the first time and it was just awesome :) I had looked up various recipes and adopted the ingredients and techniques that appealed to me.  An incredible dinner was the result.  I’m afraid I don’t have the usual photographic accompaniments; I didn’t think of it because I had never made this before.

Anyway, this is how it went:

Eggplant Parmesan

2 med/large eggplant
3/4 c milk
2 c breadcrumbs
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1 lb mozzarella cheese
1/2 c grated parmesan cheese
1 (1lb, 10 oz.) jar spaghetti or pizza sauce

Preheat oven to 375º F.  Butter (or use cooking spray) 2 cookie sheets and a 13 x 9 baking dish.

Slice the mozzarella.

Place milk in one bowl and mix the breadcrumbs, basil and oregano in another.  Peel the eggplants and slice into 1/4” slices.  Dunk into the milk, then into the breadcrumbs and place on cookie sheet in a single layer.  Place cookie sheets into the oven for 20 - 30 minutes or until eggplant is fork tender.  Remove from oven, but leave the oven on at the same temperature.

Put a good spoonful of sauce in the bottom of the baking dish and smear it around.  Cover bottom of dish with a layer of eggplant.  Place a layer of mozzarella over that.  Repeat layering sauce, eggplant and cheese until you run out of eggplant or the baking dish is full.  Save enough sauce so that it’s the last layer and then scatter the grated parmesan over all.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and everything is bubbly :)

Serve and feast!

Notes

I used the eggplant I had on hand, but it was only barely enough.  They were definitely medium and I would absolutely look for large next time.

You don’t really need 2 whole cups of breadcrumbs - I wound up throwing about half of it away.  As breadcrumbs are cheap, this isn’t really a big deal but I hate throwing away good food.

I used Ragu tomato, basil and Italian cheese spaghetti sauce because it’s what I had available.

I looked at the cheap, store-brand, grated mozzarella because it would have been easy to use.  Then I looked at what I know to be a good brand of cheese (Dragone) and it was only 10 cents more per pound.  So I got that and sliced it myself.  Really - go with the good stuff if you can because the flavor is so worth it!

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