A wonderful Italian specialty: “Parmigiana Melanzana" that Italians love to eat. Tasty and fragrant eggplants combined with tomato sauce, with the addition of mozzarella, Parmesan cheese and basil leaves. The preparation of this dish is not very fast, but it pays off because you have an incredible Sunday lunch for the whole family. You can prepare this dish in advance and keep it in the fridge for a day, then just continue baking, as you prefer. With these eggplants, you have to wait for all the liquid to come out of them, and for that it takes some time to do the job properly. I'm not saying it's not very simple because you also have to fry these eggplants, which you need to roll in flour beforehand. And for that you need about 30 minutes and one wok pan. In addition, there is a famous sauce with which you will prepare this dish, and believe me, it has a fantastic Mediterranean taste! Basically, if you want to make this famous original Italian dish, follow my recipe as I prepare it at least once a month. Follow recipe.
Ingredients: medium, standing time: 1h, total time:3 h 15 min. 8 serving
1.35 kg eggplants/cut lengthwise/ 3 big
400 g mozzarella/ sliced or grated
180 g grated Parmesan Cheese
1 teaspoon dry basil
1 teaspoon oregano
about 10 Tablespoon flour for rolling eggplants
200 ml olive oil EVO for frying
For Sauce:
2 medium onions/ finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic/ minced
700 ml tomato purée/ rustic pesto
1.5 teaspoon dry basil
2 teaspoon oregano
250 ml water for sauce
2 teaspoon sugar
2 Tablespoon basil fresh leaves
salt and black pepper to taste
Preparation:
First, wash the eggplants, clean them of stalk, (do not throw away the peel!).
Then cut them into slices about 5 mm thick along the length.
Arrange the slices cut in this way in layers in a colander, sprinkle with salt between one and the other layer. This procedure is useful because it releases the liquid.
Place the colander in a bowl, cover it with a plate or a heavier board that presses better. Let them stand like this for about 1 hour because it is necessary to drain the water from the vegetables well.
While you wait for the eggplants to drain from the liquid, make the tomato sauce.
Sauce:
Fry the chopped onion for a few minutes until it becomes transparent. Then add the finely chopped garlic, wait for the aroma to release for a few seconds, then add the tomato purée, basil, salt, pepper to taste, and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Cook for about 25-30minutes, with occasionally stirring and adding water, then turn off heat.
Processing:
When the sauce is ready, move on to the eggplants' preparation.
Roll the drained eggplants in flour. (Not everyone does this step, some recipes do not include flour).
Fry the eggplants in plenty of hot oil, let them brown on both sides. When they are ready, put them on a kitchen towel to absorb excess fat in a larger tray.
While I'm putting the eggplants on a napkin, I pat them from the top with another napkin and go through the bottom one more time. Then I put them away to in another plate, so there won't be any more oil in your food.
When you have finished that, move on to the next step of preparation.
Cut the mozzarella into slices. Start assembling the eggplant parmigiana.
Pour a little sauce with help of ladle on the bottom of the baking dish.
Divide the ingredients well into 3 parts. Because in this recipe of mine there are three layers.
Arrange a layer of eggplants, side by side, sprinkled with full 4 tablespoons of grated Parmesan, chopped basil leaves and slices of mozzarella, then tomato sauce, then repeat.
Divide the ingredients well into 3 parts. Because in this recipe of mine there are three layers. Layer in the same order as described above, until you run out of ingredients.
If you have time, it would be good to leave the Parmigiana Melanzana prepared like this in the fridge for a 1–2 hours before baking, if you don't have time then continue working.
Bake in a heated oven at 180 °C for 20–25 minutes.
The dish is ready for everyone when the crust is caught on top
When is finished, wait for 10 minutes, cut in portion, serve warm. I believe you will enjoy the bites!
Buon appetito!
NOTE:
The duration of preparation also depends on the amount you are making, if there are two of you, cut the amount in half, you will need a square container 20×20 cm.
As for the oil, I was very economical, I always added a little and waited for it to heat up and added the eggplants, so I didn't use a lot of oil for this dish.
If you don't want to bake these eggplants, it's not a problem, arrange them and drain them, but peel off the skin beforehand. In this recipe, I didn't peel the eggplant because I think it's a shame to remove this part because it's full of vitamins.
You can avoid frying if you don't really want to use less flour. Fry the eggplants in a little oil until they are golden brown on both sides.
The dish can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 4 days!
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