Eggplant Parmigiana

Discussion

Unequivocally, eggplant parmigiana is the most popular Italian vegetable dish. It's simply layers of cooked eggplant, marinara sauce and cheese. Although marinara sauce recipes may vary slightly and cooks have preferences about which cheese they prefer, there isn't a consensus on how to prepare and cook eggplant.

Many North End Italians believe eggplant's skin is rich in vitamins and should never be removed. That may work with some delicate varieties, not with larger American globe eggplant.

Some cooks peel, slice, and cook eggplant without fuss. Others insist on disgorging eggplant, salting to release the eggplant's bitter liquid. Claims are it also helps reduce the amount of oil the eggplant absorbs when cooking. Even those that agree in "sweating" the eggplant, they differ in their procedures. One popular method is to salt fresh slices and place them in a pasta colander over the sink or a pot. A bowl of water or another weight is placed on top to help release the liquid. After a half hour or so the eggplant will "sweat" it's dark, bitter liquid. After disgorging, salt is wiped off or slices are rinsed and dried on paper towels.

Mom used a simpler approach. She lightly salted eggplant slices and rested them on paper or cloth towels. The salt naturally draws the liquid out.

There also is a view by some that the best procedure is to wet brine the eggplant. They place slices in salted water for about 20 minutes, rinse and dry them on paper towels.

Once you decide on whether or not to "sweat" eggplant and you settle on a technique, the Next decision is whether to sauté the eggplant plain, dusted with flour, or breaded. Possibly because it may be easier or healthier, some like to oven cook their eggplant verses pan sauté.

Preparation, My Preferences

I like the benefits of disgorging. I've tried all the techniques discussed above and like moms quick and effective technique best, lightly salting eggplant slices on both sides, resting them on paper towels for about a half hour. Weighting in colander can result in flat slices. If you still want to eliminate disgorging, you can use other eggplant varieties that are less bitter. Chinese, Japanese, or some smaller eggplants with smaller seeds are good choices. Japanese seems to be more readily available but is slightly bitterer than Chinese.

All three methods of cooking eggplant, plain, flour or breading are very acceptable. However, for parmigiana I strongly favor dredging eggplant in flour and sauté in olive or vegetable oil for traditional parmigiana. I like the crispy texture flour helps provide over plain fried. As I indicated earlier, parmigiana is simply three ingredients, eggplant, marinara sauce and cheese. For me, breading is a distraction from the expected taste of eggplant.

About cheese, although the dish is called eggplant parmigiana, my family traditionally used mozzarella, preferably fresh. However, all layers of sauce were sprinkled with grated parmigiana. I tend to take the easy way out and use shredded Italian cheese mix. If for company, I often cheat and use slices of fresh mozzarella just the top layer. 

Eggplant Parmigiana can be assembled earlier and baked just before company arrives. Already baked eggplant parmigiana can easily be reheated.