Thursday, April 8, 2010

Eggplant Parmesan

Use a 2" deep baking dish (roughly 9"X11")
You will need:
3 Large Eggplants
Approximately 2 Cups of spaghetti sauce with meat (homemade is the best)
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese (I do not mean that stuff that comes in the green can either, use real cheese that you must grate!)
1 bag of shredded Mozzarella Cheese (whole milk only)
Olive Oil (you won't need extra virgin this, the oil is for frying the eggplant do not use vegetable oil)
Salt and Pepper to Taste
3 Oz. Lemon Juice fresh or bottled
A large plate with layers of paper towels for draining the oil from the fried eggplant.

Pour about two cups of Olive Oil into a large non-stick frying pan
Add s touch of salt and pepper
Cut off the ends of the eggplants then Peel the eggplants with a peeler removing all the skin.
Sprinkle lemon juice over the eggplant to stop the oxidisation.
Slice into thin slices as thin as you can.
Give the slices a little salt and pepper
Turn on the heat letting the oil become hot
Begin peeling the next eggplant
Once the oil is hot place only as many slices in the pot as will fit
Fry them on both sides until they become browned
Remove from the oil lay the slices in a single row on the paper towel to drain. Then cover with another layer of paper towel adding layer after layer as you fry more and more eggplant.
Once you have peeled, salt & peppered and fried each slice of eggplant and the slices have cooled you can move on to assembling the dish.

Cover the bottom and the sides of the baking dish with your sauce. Paint it on in a thin layer.
Then lay the eggplant slices into the dish covering the bottom while edging up the sides a bit.
Salt and Pepper each layer to taste
Dust with a generous layer of Parmesan Cheese
Drop dollops of the meat sauce onto some of the slices of Parmesan. (Remember we are not trying to make too much liquid so about six tablespoon size dollops per lawyer)
Cover with a generous layer of Mozzarella Cheese
Repeat making three layers. If your baking dish is larger you may only get two layers which is fine.
With the final layer in place put the dish into a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees F and bake for about thirty minutes. The cheese should be completely melted and the ingredients bubbling.
You can also heat and serve extra sauce on the side.
This can be served as a main course or as a side dish.

No comments:

Post a Comment