Aubergine Parmigiana Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What do you eat with aubergine parmigiana? ›

She loves this aubergine parmigiana and wolfs it down. What is this? Serve it with garlic bread, potatoes or rice and salad to complete the meal. Try my easy garlic bread or extra delicious garlic pizza bread or hasselback potatoes.

The peel of an eggplant is completely edible. However, as the eggplant grows bigger and matures, the peel may become tough and bitter. People often prefer to peel larger eggplants because of this, but smaller eggplants do just fine unpeeled. It ends up being a matter of personal preference.

Modern eggplant has had bitterness nearly bred out of it, so many cooks have given up the practice. Salting the slices for eggplant Parmesan is not to prevent bitter flavors, but to season the eggplant itself and, at least in my experience, keep the eggplant from sucking up too much of the olive oil from frying.

Remember, this is eggplant parm, not sauce parm. You want to do the most to protect your eggplant. Salting it to remove moisture before it starts cooking is very important (and letting it squeeze out excess moisture beneath the weight of a heavy pot for an hour is crucial, too).

Eggplant parmesan tends to be lighter on the stomach and is considered to be more healthy. Eggplant is also less expensive. Restaurants find that it is a much cheaper option for guests.

Eggplants are rich in fiber and antioxidants. A serving of eggplant can provide at least 5% of a person's daily requirement of fiber, copper, manganese, B-6, and thiamine. It also contains other vitamins and minerals. In addition, eggplants are a source of phenolic compounds that act as antioxidants.

Many recipes call for salting and rinsing eggplant before cooking it to draw out its bitterness. Brining can be used instead and has the added advantage of helping the eggplant keep its shape when it's cooked, whether your recipe calls for baking, frying, or grilling.

Typically eggplant behaves like a sponge, soaking up heroic amounts of oil when fried. The Terzo Piano chefs use this trick to prevent heavy aubergines: Before frying, soak the strips of eggplant in an ice water bath. They will absorb water and drop in temperature.

Older recipes call for salting eggplant to draw out the bitter juices, but today's eggplants are less bitter (unless very large), so salting is largely unnecessary. It will, however, help the spongy flesh absorb less oil and crisp up like a dream.

What is the secret to eggplant parmesan? ›

The secret to great eggplant parmesan

And that is to eliminate entirely the breading step of the recipe you are most likely in possession of. Adding the breading means the eggplant slices spend too much time in the oil during browning and provide extra places for that oil to get sucked up.

Perhaps most important of all—the best way by far to enjoy Parmigiano Reggiano is always to break it into small rough-texture pieces. The eating experience is significantly more interesting because you get more cheese exposed to your tongue. The uneven surface allows you to experience the cheese's full complexity.

Store your eggplant parmigiana in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap, for 1-2 days. It can be frozen after cooking, maybe already divided into portions, and defrosted in the fridge as needed before reheating.

Wine Pairing with Eggplant Parmesan: Barbera or Sangiovese

Queue Italian Reds! Sangiovese wines like Chianti or Rosso di Montalcino are easy to find in stores, but a more fun option to pair with Eggplant Parmesan is Barbera, a grape coming out of the PIemonte region in Northwestern Italy.

Parmigiana, known as Parmigiana di Melanzane or Melanzane alla Parmigiana, is a classic Italian dish made with thinly sliced, floured and fried eggplant layered with tomato sauce and cheese and baked in the oven. Parmigiana made with a filling of eggplant is the earliest and still unique Italian version.