I cook.
Not all the time, BUT most of the time. It wasn’t always this way, but at some point, shortly after moving in with my then Italian boyfriend, it happened.
Not only is he a MAJOR foodie, but he also has NO IDEA how to cook. This doesn’t stop him from having a very precise opinion on what is GOOD and what is BAD and how something should taste!
This means, that if I make something that isn’t “yummy” I NEVER HEAR THE END OF IT. Dinner becomes an endless discussion of why whatever I made isn’t yummy.
Most women would go mental, but I took this non-stop criticism as a push in the right direction and I learned how to cook. And so, this is how the man who doesn’t know how to fry an egg taught me how to make a decent meal….a meal fit for an Italian! (Note, I’ve also cooked for his parents, relatives, friends and GRANDMOTHER!)
La Parmigiana di Melanzane
Like all cooking newbies in Italy, when I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA where to even begin with a recipe I start at a website called Giallo Zafferano. This is a very good cooking and recipe website with videos, and you can also find a lot of their recipes translated into English. My recipe for “Eggplant Parmesan” known in Italy as “La Parmigiana di Melanzane” has its quantities, cooking times and basic steps based on this recipe from Giallo Zafferano. But I’ve modified it with a little know-how from my Sicilian mother who learned these tricks from my nonna (grandmother)! The Parmigiana di Melanzane is a Sicilian recipe and as cited here refers to the Sicilian word “Parmiciana” referring to the layering of the eggplant.
I’ve also modified the original recipe by using a more flavourful Pecorino cheese from Sardegna, which is lactose -free and since my husband refers to my recipe as the best he’s ever had and “f-ing” buono (good), I thought it was worthy enough to share!
I make this every now and then because it is yummy hot, yummy cold, yummy at room temperature, yummy frozen and reheated and PERFECT if you expecting a lot of guests for dinner.
But it takes time! And if you have a young child at home, I recommend doing the prep work while they nap, and then perhaps the assembly work and actual baking when they are awake.
Ingredients:
For my recipe you will need:
4 eggplants (I use the one pictured above!)
Parmigiano Reggiano (I always use PR that has been aged for 36 months) – 250 grams
Aged Pecorino Sardo (pecorino cheese from Sardegna) – 500 grams
Sea Salt from the Adriatic Coast
Canned, cubed tomatoes with no spices – 1200 grams
Plump vine tomatoes – 1300 grams
Fresh Basil – a few leaves
White Onion – 1
Fresh garlic cloves – 2
High Quality Olive Oil
Eggplant Preparation:
My mother taught me this trick whenever cooking with eggplants – following these steps removes not only excess water from the eggplants but also any bitterness.
- Peel the eggplants with a knife
- Cut them into disks about 1 cm thick (or so, maybe even a little thinner!)
- Layer them in a colander with SEA SALT SPRINKLED ON EACH CUT PIECE!!
- Put the colander in a larger bowl or somewhere where the water can drain and your counter doesn’t get filled with water!
- Put a plate on them so they have weight on-top – and a can to weight them down!
- LEAVE THEM FOR AN HOUR – You will notice a whole lot of brown water comes out, and their density is reduced
- After an hour WASH EACH PIECE under COLD RUNNING WATER to remove the brown juice and salt!!!
Sauce Preparation:
While the eggplants are draining I make the sauce:
- 1200 grams of cubed, canned tomatoes with NO SPICES or anything added, JUST cubed tomatoes – preferably good quality!
- 1300 grams of plump, bright red, vine tomatoes
- Coarsely chop the 1 white onion and 2 cloves of garlic
Make a “sofritto”
In Italian “soffritto” refers to a simple base for many of the basic sauces, including tomato sauce. In this case my “sofritto” is 3 table spoons of olive oil, heated over LOW HEAT, with the garlic and onions added AFTER the oil has been WARMED but is NOT STEAMING!
Tips for making a “sofritto”:
- Do not let the oil steam/burn
- Do not blacken or burn the onion or garlic, you just want them to soften and flavor the oil
- Have patience! It makes all the difference!
Steps to Make the Tomato Sauce
- Make your “sofritto”
- Add in the 1200 grams of cubed, canned tomatoes
- Add Salt*** (Please see the note about salt after the pictures) Do not over-salt because you can always add in more later!
- While the cubed tomatoes are heating through over medium/LOW heat, wash the vine tomatoes
- Clean the vine tomatoes using a knife to cut just a bit from the tip where the stem attached
- Cut in half
- Add the cleaned, halved tomatoes to the sauce
- Let simmer over medium low heat for about 30/40 minutes.
- Remove from heat and add in some fresh basil!
***SALT
Let’s talk about salt for a moment!!! Salt is tricky! If you over salt your dishes you will ruin them! Under salt and they may be bland. But it is generally better to under-salt and not over salt. Personally I use “Sale Dolce di Cervia” meaning “Sweet sea salt from Cervia”. Cervia is a city on the Adriatic coast of Italy known for its “sweet” salt, which is not sweet at all. It is salty, just like normal salt, but with a whole array of special properties. One of the main special things is that it is difficult to over-salt using “sweet” salt, which naturally adjusts to the recipe and perfectly balances out automatically. I know….I know, it’s just salt…but it’s NOT just salt. This salt has saved my cooking on more than one occasion and I highly urge you to find some Cervia “sale dolce”!!!
Bake the Eggplants!
Let’s say that roughly an hour has passed, it is now time to prepare the eggplants. Now, my recipe is not “traditional” because the traditional recipe calls for the eggplant to be fried. I like to steer away from too many fried foods so I bake mine!
Here are the steps:
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F)
- Lay some parchment paper on a baking tray
- Take your eggplant slices that have been WASHED under cold water to get rid of the salt and lay in on the parchment paper
- In a bowl mix a teaspoon of salt with a 50/50 solution of water and oil
- Using a brush, brush the eggplant with this oil, water, salt mixture.
- Bake until they are SLIGHTLY browned, and most definitely not BLACK!!! I always set my phone timer to check on them every minute!!
At this point, in my cooking, my son woke up!!
If you’re wondering how I kept him busy while I was cooking…. I put him in a high chair in the kitchen, gave him a bowl with water and a brush and let him paint the furniture, animals and paper with water! He also loves the whisk, and sometimes I keep pizza dough that I prepare in advance in the fridge and I let him make a mini-pizza with the sauce!
The Cheese
The original recipe for “La Parmigiana di Melanzane” calls for 500 grams of Caciocavallo cheese and 150 grams of Parmigiano Reggiano. I am lactose intolerant, so I can’t eat Caciocavallo, plus I am a lover of Pecorino cheese and Parmigiano!!! So instead I use:
250 grams of Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese (aged 36 months)
and
2 different kinds of AGED Pecorino cheese from Sardinia to equal 500 grams
Instead of hand-grating (no one has that kind of time) I use my little chopper and whiz it up until it is a grated consistency. You can prepare the cheese while your eggplants are baking!
The Assembly
So now we have:
- The Sauce
- The Baked Eggplants
- The Cheese
All that is left to do is put it all together!!
- Keep your oven on from baking the eggplants this way it is already pre-heated at 200°C (400°F)
- Start with a rectangular, glass baking dish and brush all sides with olive oil
- Add 1 ladle of tomato sauce to the bottom and spread
- Layer the eggplants
- Sprinkle with Cheese
My Cheese Guide!!
Considering that I use 4 big eggplants and a fairly large baking dish I usually end up with 3 LAYERS!
When adding the cheese my rule is to sprinkle on the first layer of eggplant, HEAVILY COVER the middle layer (which is the one that will melt and fuse the whole thing together) and sprinkle on the top. Not too light of a sprinkle but much less than the middle layer.
This is the middle layer of cheese:
Bake! (FINALLY!!!)
When you are all done layering, bake on the middle rack of the oven at 200°F for 40 minutes. If your oven is ventilated you will want to bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes. After the 40 minutes are up TURN OFF THE OVEN but leave the pan INSIDE!!! Let in rest in the oven for another 20 minutes so that it can finish cooking with no heat.
As yummy as this is hot, it is incredibly yummy at room temperature, and i.m.h.o. even tastier slightly reheated on day 2!!
Total time spent making this meal?
Well….between prep, sauce making, baking the eggplants and baking it was around 3.5 hours! But don’t forget that I also had my little guy with me for some of it!! Don’t let the work/time scare you away, this recipe is incredibly delicious and once in the oven all you have to do is wait….oh and clean all the pans, bowls and baking dishes from the prep work.
But hey, there is just something about Italian cooking from scratch……
Please let me know if you’ve enjoyed this recipe. I actually cook all the time and have plenty to share but haven’t really gotten into the habit of posting. So far, I’ve only shared the Ribolitta, a traditional Tuscan soup, a Butternut Squash, Smoked Bacon and Pecorino Cheese Risotto and another Eggplant recipe with scamorza cheese and cherry tomatoes!
Frequently, I make a Ligurian rabbit stew, lots of different fish recipes with halibut, sole fish or octopus, all kinds of roasted, stuffed and baked vegetables and the Italian version of Mac & Cheese! If you have a particular recipe you’d like to see or you enjoyed this post please feel free to let me know and I’ll start posting away.
As for my criticising Italian connoisseur husband….wondering what he said when her arrived home to find one of his favorite dishes on the table……??
“Why is the house such a disaster!”
Go figure! Happy Monday everyone!
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