Aubergine Parmigiana. Donal's aubergine parmigiana is so easy to make and tastes wonderful. It's simpler than a lasagne and lighter, too. The tomato sauce can be doubled and frozen for another easy dinner.
Great served with all sorts of roasted meats and with roasted fish as well. Aubergine parmigiana (aka melanzane alla parmigiana, or parmesan aubergine, for the sake of linguistic consistency) is that rare and glorious thing: Mediterranean stodge. Make a layer of eggplant slices, overlapping them slightly. You can cook Aubergine Parmigiana using 11 ingredients and 12 steps. Here is how you cook it.
Ingredients of Aubergine Parmigiana
- It's of For the sauce:.
- It's 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced.
- Prepare 800 ml of passata.
- You need of Few sprigs of thyme or 1-2 tsp of dried herbs.
- You need 2 tbsp. of olive oil.
- You need of Salt and pepper.
- You need of For the Parmigiana:.
- It's 4 of aubergines, sliced length way, 1/2cm thick.
- You need 2 of balls of mozzarella (125g each).
- You need 100 g of Parmesan cheese, finely grated.
- Prepare of Olive oil.
Top with a layer of mozzarella, another layer of sauce, and a sprinkle of grated cheese. Repeat the layering, ending with eggplant, sauce, and grated cheese. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute the onions, basil, bay leaves, oregano and thyme in oil until onions are tender. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, honey and lemon-pepper.
Aubergine Parmigiana step by step
- Preheat your oven Oven 180℃/350℉/Gas mark 4 if cooking straight away..
- The sauce: Place the oil in the pan on a low heat and gently fry the garlic for a few minutes, without colouring..
- Add the passata to the garlic pan, season with salt and pepper and add the herbs. Whilst it simmers on medium heat for about 45mins to 1 hour move to step 3. (, until reduced to a thick sauce. Set aside..
- Frying the aubergines: I use two frying pans at the same time to get the job done quickly. If you feel like you are adding loads of oil, just use a little less and turn the heat down so they don't burn!.
- I fry them, get a bit of colour on each side, and then pop them under the grill to brown a little more and crack on with the next batch. If the weather is good I do them all on the BBQ instead..
- Assembly. Get all your elements in one place. Sauce, aubergines, mozzarella and parmesan. (As a guide, I did 4 layers with mozzarella on.).
- Place 2-3 spoonfuls of sauce on the bottom of the dish and spread it out. Layer 4-5 slices of aubergine on top to create your first layer..
- Put 2 more spoonfuls of sauce onto the aubergines and spread out. Break up around 60g (half of 1 ball) into chunks and place on the sauce, and then sprinkle around 10g of Parmesan on top..
- Repeat the process until you are left with a final layer of aubergines. It is better to have a complete covering of aubergines for the top layer, so if you feel like you are running for this, use fewer in one of the middle layers (like I did!)..
- When you have your aubergines on top, pour on the rest of the tomato sauce to make a thick final layer and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese to complete. Feel free to grate more..
- Cook in the oven for 1 hr. Oven 180℃/350℉/Gas mark 4. (Or cook later!) If you feel the top is browning too quickly, pop a piece of tin foil on top and take it off 10 minutes from the end. The parmigiana will benefit from resting for 15 minutes after it comes out of the oven….as will the roof of your mouth! Is great reheated the next day (or cold) in fact sometimes even nicer!.
- Serve with a sourdough loaf or your favourite bread to mop up Italian styley!.
Eggplant parmigiana is a classic dish of southern Italy and is mostly associated with the cooking style of Naples. However, it can easily be found in Calabria and Sicily as well. If you are wondering what eggplant parmigiana is, that may vary region by region. Aubergine parmigiana is one of the most iconic Italian dishes. It is made with fried aubergine slices, layered with tomato sauce, mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano.