Italian Cuisine

Eggplant parmigiana

Cuisine: Italian Created by Rosa Matto

This is my family’s favourite picnic dish, sometimes zucchini is substituted for the eggplant. This is quite a laborious recipe, though the result is worthwhile and feeds lots of people as part of a buffet.

Ingredients

3 large eggplants, sliced 1cm thick
Salt
Flour
4 eggs, beaten
Oil for frying

For the sugo
1 bottle of homemade passata (or 2 cans peeled tomatoes or 12 very ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
4 tbsp olive oil
250g bocconcini or fresh mozzarella, sliced
100g freshly grated parmesan
Fresh basil leaves
Salt and pepper

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Preparation

Slice the eggplant (no more than 1 cm thick). Sprinkle with salt and weigh down for an hour. Pat dry and dust in seasoned flour. Beat the eggs, dip the floured eggplant slices in the egg, shake off excess, then fry in hot oil until brown on both sides. Drain on paper.

To make the tomato sauce, heat the oil and fry the garlic and onion, add the tomatoes, chopped with all their juices. Cook only until the juices have evaporated. Now, season to taste and add chopped basil (reserve half the basil for layering.)

Smear the bottom of an ovenproof dish with sauce, put down a layer of eggplant slices, dot with some small pieces of bocconcini and a sprinkling of parmesan and a few torn leaves of basil.

Continue to layer, finishing with sauce dotted with cheeses.

Bake at 180ºC for 20-25 minutes. Allow to rest for 10 minutes or so. Serve hot or at room temperature. If serving cold, omit the bocconcini since it hardens on cooling.

To serve, encourage diners to lift off layers, rather than cutting a wedge.

Italian Restaurants

Displaying 10 of 2156 Italian Restaurants.

Restaurant		Suburb
1.	The Beresford Hotel	Surry Hills
2.	Cellar 47	Shepparton
3.	Valentino's	Northbridge
4.	Smithfield Tavern	Smithfield
5.	Benny's Bar & Cafe	Fremantle
6.	Universal Bar	Northbridge
7.	Arch Rival	Palmerston
8.	Railway Hotel	Fitzroy North
9.	Vibe Cafe Restaurant	St Kilda
10.	Morning Star Estate	Mt Eliza

30 Apr 2012 10:05 AEST

Rebecca

Greensborough

Great!

Fantastic recipe, we couldn't get enough of it - with homegrown basil from the garden this was perfect. :)

19 May 2011 09:32 AEST

Lea

I have made this dish for years for my family of all males and they love even though it is vegie. Many of their mates love it even if they state they hate vegie food. They keep coming back for more.

14 May 2011 06:48 AEST

Cathy

I have just made this dish with the help of my 8 year old, what a fantastic bonding experience ! It smells soooooo good !

22 Feb 2011 04:14 AEST

Mel

Adelaide

Perfecto

I love this receipe exactly how it is. It just melts in your mouth and is so delicious.Tastes fantastic with homemade tomato sauce! I also think it's easy enough for anyone to make it.

27 Jan 2011 06:29 AEST

Melissa

Kensington

Great meal

I've cooked this a few times now, and It's fantastic every time. I've even stacked it with lasagne sheets and it's worked well! Great meal.

03 Jan 2011 04:01 AEST

Rosa

just like my nonna made for me back in italy now i can make it to and my daughter just loves it thank you for having it on your show

11 Jul 2010 03:10 AEST

jody

try crumbing...... adding finely chopped fresh parsley and garlic and a sprinkle of grated parmesan to the crumbs, then shallow frying....more fattening no doubt, but .v nice. bon apetit.

28 May 2010 08:05 AEST

Andrew Corney and Kirsty Corney

We cooked this at home to the recipe but with the one change, we used Boccochini instead of mozarella and changed the basil to oregano, as my wife is allergic to basil. We also served it with a bottle of sparkling shiraz, which complemented the dish perfectly. We both loved this dish and are cooking it again. i think will become a favorite in our household. Thank You for this fantastic dish

25 Apr 2010 04:37 AEST

Terry

I have always loved eggplant. A quicker, and just as tasty way is to steam the eggplant slices until they are soft and floppy but not cooked too much where they fall apart. Cool then proceed with the recipe.

21 Apr 2010 04:08 AEST

alexandra

melbourne

Amazing!!!!

I made this just after seeing the episode-amazing!!!! it really melted in your mouth. I'm making it again tonight-its a real winner!!!!!

11 Apr 2010 11:59 AEST

Nalin

I made this dish tonight, with a slight variation as I only decided after cooking a basic pasta sauce that I would expand it to become eggplant parmigiana - so I had onion, capsicum and zucchini in the sauce, and used no cheese as my daughter has a dairy intolerance - suffice to say the people to whom I served the dish were extremely happy! They ummed and ahhed through the dish the whole way through, just the way I like it! Thank you for the inspiration and the instruction!

02 Apr 2010 09:39 AEST

Sally

Years ago a wonderful Italian restaurant in Tugun (now long gone unfortunately) used to offer a welcoming single serve of eggplant parmigiana to arriving patrons. ie just one slice of eggplant plus cheese and sauce - we still remember it fondly - Great idea for a meze or entre?

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