Neapolitan eggplant Parmesan
( Parmigiana di melanzane )

Eggplant parmesan recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Prepare eggplants.
  Trim stem off from eggplants and wash under running water.
  Slice them lengthwise to a thickness of 1/2 cm.
  To reduce their bitter taste: just put them in a colander, salting each layer, and cover with a weight.
  Salt pulls out solanine via osmosis.
  Time: at least 30 minutes.
  Below I explain another method too.
• - Prepare tomato sauce.
  Slice onion finely.
  Place olive oil and onion in a non-stick frying pan.
  Fry slightly onion on low heat, stirring now and then, few minutes.
  Add puréed tomatoes.
  Season to taste with salt.
  Continue cooking on low heat, other 15 minutes.
  Meanwhile wash basil leaves and pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper.
  Once turned off the stove, add some basil leaves, chopped with your hands.
  Stir very well.
• - Wash the salt off eggplant slices under running water.
  Pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper.
• - Fry eggplants.
  Heat peanut oil in a non-stick frying pan or a wok.
  Fry eggplant slices, a few at a time, browning them on both sides.
  Transfer fried eggplant slices with a skimming ladle on absorbent kitchen paper to remove the excess of fat.
  It would be better to use a tray.
  When the first layer is complete cover with other absorbent kitchen paper.
  Keep it up, layer after layer.
  
• - Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
• - Choose a baking dish.
  Only time and experience will teach you what is the best.
  To begin, choose a small baking dish.
  It's better to do more layers than too few ones.
• - Cube or grate cheese.
• - Spread a spoonful of tomato sauce on bottom of pan.
  Arrange eggplant slices, side by side.
  Sprinkle each layer with tomato sauce, cheese cubes, a handful of Parmesan and some chopped basil leaves with your hands.
  Continue alternating eggplants and other ingredients.
  Finish with a thick layer of sauce and Parmesan cheese.
  Do not let mozzarella cheese for the last layer
• - Bake until the surface of eggplant parmesan is golden, 20 to 30 minutes.
  Look at the photo for more details.

Just before serving

• - Let your eggplant parmesan cool before serving.
  It would be better to prepare it in advance and possibly heat it up slightly before serving.

Note

Tips

• - The preparation of eggplant parmesan is quite long but the dish is so good that it's worth staying in kitchen a bit more.
  It is inevitable that with the rhythms of modern life is about to become the typical dish of celebration days.
• - And now I can speak of eggplants. Prefer long purple eggplants whose best season runs from late June to mid-August.
  In Italy eggplant parmesan is the traditional dish of Assumption day (August 15).
  Long purple eggplants are better because they have few seeds.
  To eliminate their bitter water of vegetation you can also dip them in cold salted water for an hour after cutting into slices.
• - You can substitute onion with a garlic clove to brown in olive oil and remove before adding puréed tomatoes.
• - You may wonder what is fiordilatte. Fiordilatte is a cheese from Campania and it is ideal for eggplant parmesan according to people who live in Campania. It is similar to mozzarella and so if you do not find it replace fiordilatte with mozzarella.
  A caution: cut your cheese into slices and leave in refrigerator overnight so they can release all the excess milk. In this way you'll be able not to find any trace of milk-water in the bottom of your dish.
  The doses that I suggest for cheese are only 150g (5 1/3 ounces). Someone uses up to 700g (1 1/2 pound) and this value is extremely important for nutrition facts, especially calories and total fat. To take full advantage of this cheese you should grate it.

Menu planning

• - When and how serving eggplant parmesan? It is certainly not a course for your daily menu. Both for the amount of fat and calories and its long preparation.
  Serve eggplant parmesan for your summer get-togethers as a starter (in this case, it serves at least 8) accompanied with cubed focaccia or pizza without tomato. Unmatch other fried food.
  Another choice could be to prepare an Italian antipasto, light pasta salad and then serve eggplant parmesan as main dish.
  All the suggested recipes are linked in the next paragraph!

Useful links to this recipe

• - As promised, here are the links to Sicilian and Apulian versions of eggplant Parmesan.
  On the contrary, if you are more interested in light cooking, follow the link to no-fried eggplant Parmesan recipe!
• - And now the recipes for Italian focaccia and pizza.
  Do you know how to assemble a good antipasto platter? or how to make a tasty Italian pasta salad?
• - Curious about the story of eggplant, the origin of this dish and the reasons for its many versions in Italy? take a look at eggplant Parmesan story!

Healthy eating

• - Note. I could not enter any values ​​for calories, total fat, proteins of eggplant parmesan because it is practically impossible to make an accurate calculation. Anyone who ventures a value does it arbitrarily.
  Anyway I calculate calories and fat of eggplant parmesan. Thay appear below but I did it without considering frying.
  It is difficult to make a precise calculation when there is fried food because many factors are involved that depend substantially on how much oil aubergines absorb during cooking and how much oil you are able to remove on absorbent kitchen paper. You have to add an average of 100 to 150 kcal per 100 grams of fried eggplant (cooked).
  That's why eggplant parmesan shouldn't be made for your family menu but only for your special occasions. Another reason is that frying should be used moderately.
  Here are nutrition facts of eggplant parmesan without frying.
  Energy: 351 kcal 1468 kJ
  Protein: 21.4g
  Total fat: 23.3g
  Carbo: 14.9g
  Sugar: 14.9.g
• - Interesting to compare nutrition facts of Neapolitan eggplant parmesan with Apulian and Sicilian versions.
  
• - Fiber per serving: 9.9g (daily intake: 30 grams per person)
• - it's interesting to compare Neapolitan eggplant parmesan with Apulian and Sicilian versions for nutrition facts.

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Neapolitan eggplant Parmesan "?

My husband and I generally match wines from Campania because all traditional recipes should be accompanied by local wines according to us. For eggplant parmesan Campi Flegrei (red wine of Campania) or red Solopaca. Or a young red medium-body wine according to your own taste.