James Kenji Lopez-Alt
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Six Ingredient Eggplant Parmesan
🕑 Added 2023-09-28 23:02:09 +0000 UTCThis version of eggplant parm is quite different from the Italian-American version you'll find in my book or on Serious Eats. While the Italian-American version uses breadcrumbs and ends up as more of a sort of juicy but sliceable casserole, the Italian original is a much simpler affair that really highlights two summer vegetables: eggplants and tomatoes.
Some recipes call for a bit of an egg wash, or perhaps a quick dip in flour before you cook the eggplant, but I usually keep it as simple as possible: nothing but sliced eggplant fried in olive oil, layered with crushed tomatoes (I used my quick sauce made from fresh plum tomatoes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3E2diDnEs4), mozzarella, basil, and parmesan. That's it!
Baked together the flavors meld perfectly with the bitterness of the eggplant and olive oil balanced by the bright sweetness of the tomatoes and the rich dairy backbone of the mozzarella. The texture is creamy and silky with a little pull from the cheese, but it's also got a few crispy bits here and there where the edges of the eggplant crisp up as they fry.
I love both versions of the dish, and if you want, you can find the Italian-American eggplant parmesan recipe in my book The Food Lab, or here on Serious Eats: https://www.seriouseats.com/all-american-eggplant-parmesan-recipe
Yield: Serves 4-6
Active time: 45 minutes
Total time: 2 hours
Ingredients (note - all measurements are rough. This is all very forgiving):
1kg (about 2 pounds) eggplants (I prefer smaller Italian or Japanese eggplants for this)
Kosher salt
500ml (about 2 cups) extra-virgin olive oil
450ml (about 15 ounces) crushed tomatoes, seasoned lightly with salt
350g (about 12 ounces) fresh mozzarella cheese
Fresh basil leaves
- Trim the tops off the eggplants then slice them into 1cm (1/3 inch) planks lengthwise or at a sharp bias. Arrange the eggplant slices on a large work surface and sprinkle evenly and gently with salt. Flip the pieces and salt the second side.
- Transfer the eggplant slices to a salad spinner and arrange the in an upright shingled pattern so that any moisture drawn out by the salt will drip down and off the eggplant. Let the slices rest for 30 minutes, then spin them dry in the spinner and transfer them to a towel-lined tray.
- In your largest saute pan or skillet, heat up 1cm (about 1/3 inch) of olive oil over medium-high heat until the edge of slice of eggplant dipped into it starts bubbling immediately (about 175C or 350F). Carefully lay slices of eggplant into the hot oil, draping them away from you so that the oil does not splash towards you. Add as many slices as you can fit in a single layer.
- Cook the eggplant slices, moving and and flipping them frequently until they are golden brown on both sides. Lift the eggplant slices, transfer them back to the tray with the uncooked eggplant slices and gently push down on them with the back of a spatula. The goal here is to use the un-cooked eggplant to blot out some of the excess oil from the cooked eggplant.
- Continue frying until all of the eggplant has been fried. At this point, you can save the fried eggplant in the fridge and assemble and bake the casserole up to a few days later, if you’d like.
- Adjust an oven rack to its center position, then preheat the oven to 190C (about 375F).
- To construct the casserole, add a few spoonfuls of the crushed tomatoes to an appropriately-sized baking dish. Shingle on a layer of eggplant. Top them with more tomato, some dollops of mozzarella, a heavy grating of Parmesan, and a handful of basil. Repeat these layers—eggplant, tomato, cheese, basil—until the all the eggplant is used and the casserole is full. Transfer it to the oven and cook until browned and bubbly, 20-30 minutes
- Take the eggplant parm out of the oven. (It may look kinda wet. This is OK. It will thicken as it rests). Set it aside and let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Sprinkle with some fresh basil and olive oil and serve straight away.
Comments
Mohamed Moussa
Is it possible to fry the eggplant slices ahead of time and store in the fridge? And how long do you recommend brining the eggplant in the 2-3% solution? Edit: I did 2% for 1 hour. Seemed OK - could have used more salt, so maybe 3% would have worked better. I'm curious if there is an alternative to frying, maybe roasting the slices in the oven or something, to reduce the active time (and mess) required.
Joe Freedman
This was so good. I didn't have good tomatoes so used Muir Glen fire roasted crushed tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and finished it with D'Olivo Picual EVOO. Delicious and the first time I was truly successful with eggplant parm.
James Kenji Lopez-Alt
Yes, that would work and I've done it in the past!
Dakota Lis
Thoughts on trying to cook this in an Ooni? Maybe start at a low temp and then turn it up a bit to get a bit of a broiler effect at the end?
Cookin' With Squirrl
I love the idea of the fresh tomato sauce in this dish over a more complex one. Eggplant is kind of low on my list of veggies that I like to eat but this might turn that around.
James Kenji Lopez-Alt
Eggplant can oxidize and turn a little brown or gray once peeled if you let it sit out too long, yes! I'm not sure what affects it though.
Shawndeep Gill
Hi Kenji, Has your eggplant ever turned an odd green after salting and drying, or even after frying. I think it might be a reaction to metals or something but it happened to. It turned Green and an odd gray. I wanted to see if you had any food science explanation behind it.
