Ingredients

  • 2 large eggplants/aubergines
  • 1 c grated parmesan cheese
  • ½ c fresh mozzarella
  • 1 bunch basil
  • Tomato Sauce
  • 2 cans chopped tomatoes
  • ½ c onion
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1 t dry oregano
  • 1 t vinegar
  • ¼ t hot pepper flakes
  • salt and pepper
  • Bread-crumbs
  • 2 slices white bread
  • 1 T olive oil
  • 2 T fresh herbs (basil or oregano)
  • salt and pepper

Eggplant (Aubergine) Parmesan

The whole family loves this meal. Yes it takes a long time to make all the bread-crumbed eggplant and make the sauce, but there are days it is just worth it.

It is also a lovely appetiser for a dinner party and can be made the day before and reheated.

Method

The quickest way to do this is to get the tomato sauce going and while that simmers, get the eggplant and bread-crumbs ready.

Tomato Sauce

Chop up onion and finely chop garlic. Add with red pepper flakes to hot oil in small sauce pan. Saute until soft.

Add tomatoes and oregano. Bring to boil, then simmer for 20 minutes on low.

Right before using, add vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste.

Eggplant

Slice the eggplant into rounds about 1 cm or ½ inch thick.

Two methods of pre-cooking.

  1. Fried -- with olive oil in a hot pan, quickly fry and then place on towel (you can coat these in flour-egg-breadcrumbs, but that is very rich and caloric)
  2. Grilled -- on a grill pan, quickly cook these so they have a some nice grill marks, but not until they start falling apart, about 1 min a side on a hot pan.

Bread-crumbs

In a food processor, rip up the bread and roughly chop some herbs and pulse until fairly fine. Then drizzle in the oil and salt and pepper.

Assemble

  1. Thin layer of tomato sauce
  2. Layer of eggplant
  3. Tomato sauce
  4. Parmesan
  5. Ripped up basil
  6. repeat until last layer -- should be about three or four
  7. on top layer, rip up mozzarella, top with some parmesan and then the bread-crumbs

Bake in pre-heated 375F (190C) oven for 30 minutes.

Servings

4

Category

yes

Source

Peter Mahnke 200604213716