Eggplant Parmesan
Author Notes: This is my Nonna's recipe and most of the ingredients came from her beloved garden. She used to fry the eggplant in egg and flour, but I only use flour and fry them on baking sheets in a hot oven. I always thought the egg batter soaked up too much of the sauce. My version makes it lighter and creamier and you use a lot less oil. —Nancy Jo
Food52 Review: All of the cooking here is centered around getting the eggplant and tomatoes to the right texture so that when you fuse them, neither the sauce is watery nor the eggplant soggy. Nancy Jo accomplishes this by baking slabs of flour-dusted eggplant in the oven with just a trace of oil. They come out as stiff as cards. And the tomatoes are cooked down in the pan until pulpy. When the two meet in a baking dish, the eggplant soaks up some tomato juices but retains its own character so you get distinct layers. And Nancy Jo adds the mozzarella as a center layer, so you get the warm melted cheese right in the belly of the dish. Use fresh mozzarella, which is creamy and even a little sweet. - A&M —The Editors
Serves 6
Eggplant
- 3 pounds eggplant (Choose the large variety. Make sure they are firm and smooth. Also, choose male eggplants. They have fewer seeds and have a rounder, smoother bottom)
- 1 cup flour
- salt
- generous amounts of olive oil
- 1 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano
- 1/2 pound buffalo-milk mozzarella (if the balls are small, get two)
Sauce
- 2 28 ounces cans of San Marzano (any brand is fine) canned whole peeled tomatoes (add another can if you want extra sauce left over)
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- enough olive oil to cover the pan
- Peel the eggplant and slice long ways into 1/4 inch slices.
- Sprinkle each layer with salt and place into a colander, overlapping and salting as you go. Each slice should be salted. After you fill the colander, place a plate on top and weight it with a heavy pan or a tea kettle filled with water. Let the eggplant sweat for 30 minutes or more.
- While the eggplant sweats, make the sauce.
- Cover the bottom of a sauce pan with olive oil and heat over medium high heat. Add the sliced garlic and let it cook until is sizzles (do not brown the garlic). Add the canned whole tomatoes and their juice and salt. Stir and chop coarsely using a potato masher or two knives chopping crossways. Lower the heat and simmer until reduced by almost half.
- Remove the eggplant fro the colander and thoroughly pat dry each slice.
- Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Cover the bottom of a baking sheet or two with olive oil.
- Dredge the eggplant slices in flour, shaking off any excess. Place on the baking sheets and drizzle the each slice with olive oil. Bake until brown on one side (about 15 minutes or so) and tun over and brown the other side. Repeat until you have cooked all the eggplant.
- Using a 7x11 baking dish (I like ceramic or earthenware, but you can use stainless steel as well), spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom and layer the eggplant until it completely covers the bottom (it's like a puzzle!).
- Sprinkle generously with the grated parmigiano-reggiano. Add another layer of sauce and then the eggplant. Continue to build the layers until you are about two layers from the top, then add a single layer of sliced mozzarella. Finish with a couple more layers of eggplant, sauce, and parmesan. Finish the top with parmesan.
- Bake on the upper third of a 400 degree oven. Check it after it's been in the oven for 20 minutes. You may find that it throws off more liquid as it bakes. If so, press down on the eggplant and draw off any excess liquid. Cook for another 15 minutes or so. Let stand for a good 15 or 20 minutes before serving.
- Your Best Eggplant Recipe Contest Winner!
More Great Recipes:
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30 days ago Beverly
I made the eggplant parm and was pleased with the results. Next time I will cut the slices a little thicker as some of mine were a bit thin. I watched them closely in the oven so they wouldn’t burn. Also, I rinsed the salt off and they were still salty but no too salty. This process much easier than the old breading and frying.
5 months ago Cheryl
Delicious, but definitely too salty. Will rinse eggplant next time.
6 months ago jpriddy
And about the male or female fruit silliness: http://depts.washington...
6 months ago jpriddy
Am I the only one who wonders how that photo belongs with this recipe? The photo shows a very thin casserole, perhaps three layers of UNPEELED eggplant, but the recipe seems to suggest many (perhaps six or more) layers of PEELED eggplant.
6 months ago Two Trays Kitchen
This was excellent.
6 months ago Two Trays Kitchen
Delicioius!
7 months ago Loredona
Please let me know if when freezing you bake it first or can you you just freeze it after assembling it?
7 months ago keg72
I have baked it halfway and then frozen it. When reheating, I bake it from frozen.
7 months ago keg72
Delicious! I've made this a number of times. The few notes I'd share are that I do wash off the salt; I find that it needs more sauce; it's definitely time-consuming; it freezes well; don't slice the eggplant too thin before baking, or it'll burn.
7 months ago Loredona
Can you freeze this?
8 months ago njsusan
By far the best eggplant parm I've made! You don't miss the breeding one bit. It's uncomplicated and downright delish!!
8 months ago njsusan
Uhm breading. Now if I could only figure out how to edit this on my phone ...
10 months ago Cheryl
Best way I have tried to sweat eggplant! And best way to get it crispy without frying. Your Nonna knew what she was doing. Thank you for sharing. Best eggplant parm I have ever made!
10 months ago Adam
Just made this and WOW is it good! Best recipe for this dish that I ever made! The one modification is I used jar sauce, Olivo by Classico, since I didn't have the tomatoes or the patience to cook a sauce tonight. I might rinse the slices after sweating next time to cut the salt down a bit, but it tastes great right out of the oven dish after cooling. I am going to pair with some spaghetti tomorrow night.
10 months ago Gardener&Cook
Oh boy oh boy, this was good! Made a half recipe following the directions. Next time (and there will be a next time) I'll make a full recipe just to have tasty leftovers.
about 1 year ago Iris9
Just made this -- again -- and wow is it ever tasty. It's excellent the next day, cold or warm. I highly recommend it. I adulterated the sauce by starting with a finely diced onion and adding chili flakes and tons of chopped basil toward the end. PS: I've never quite got the eggplant to go "cardboard stiff," as the recipe states it will, but I don't think it makes a difference. It's delicious!
over 1 year ago tina
I found a better way to sweat my eggplant - lots of sea salt (less salty than table salt), sandwiching them between 2 cutting boards, and piling it with wine/liquor bottles to really give it a squeeze.
over 1 year ago raker
I liked this a lot. No more soupy eggplant parm. I salted and weighted the eggplant for about an hour and a half and it gave up a ton of liquid, which I think did a lot for the great texture of the final dish. Also, the eggplant came out of the oven quite dry, another plus. Next time I may skip the oven and try cooking the eggplant on the grill. The thick, reduced sauce was also delicious, and the texture was just right.
over 1 year ago Mark
I made this over the weekend and followed the recipe pretty closely. Couple issues here: my eggplant didn't sweat (guess it wasn't hot enough) and also they were still kind of soggy after baking them. Initial panic aside, I continued following the directions and assembled my layers. I decided to use the mootz and the parm for each layer. The sauce was delicious. I added a few extra spices to really make it pop. It turned out delicious and I ate it for dinner for the next two nights. I'll definitely make this again, but might skip the sweating.
over 1 year ago Marghet
A wonderful recipe that brings out the simple flavors in season tomatoes and eggplants (plus cheese). A little more time intensive than I thought, and it took a couple rounds of pans to roast all the eggplant before putting it all together. Next time I think I'd want to try my hand at fresh tomatoes, and add a hot pepper to add more zing to the sauce.
over 1 year ago melissa y
This is fantastic and my go-to eggplant parm dish. I've made it multiple times and have found that sweating the eggplant gives the best results and means you don't have to remove liquid when baking the assembled dish. I've omitted all the cheese (it's still great), used ricotta instead instead of mozzarella (gives it more of a lasagna feel without having to use noodles), and made exactly as written (my favorite). It takes about 2.5 hours start to finish, but most of the time is inactive. The actual technique is so easy and the fact that you don't have to fry the eggplant is amazing. Thank you for posting!
over 1 year ago tamar rein
Please don't let people believe an eggplant (or any fruit) is either male or female. The fruit is formed by the mother flower, usually after being successfully pollinated, for the development/protection of hopefully fertile seeds. The number of seeds in a fruit depends on environmental factors at the time of flower fertilization, including temperature, number of pollinators, etc.
over 1 year ago Chelsea
Thank you. I was very confused.
6 months ago jpriddy
Thank you.
Showing 24 out of 154 comments