#eggplant | Annie's Kitchen Therapy

This is a dish that I have not made in about thirty years. The reason for that is I was asked, thirty years ago, to make several trays of eggplant parm for my best friend’s engagement party. I was up literally all night and my kitchen was completely trashed for about a week. I think that experience gave me eggplant parm PTSD.

The only time I will ever use a jar sauce is for pizza or parm. My Sunday sauce is too rich (due to all the pork and beef that I add). The richness would take away from the flavor of the eggplant. That said, the sauce that worked for this is Michael’s of Brooklyn.

To start this dish, peel your eggplants (I leave just a few strips of peel on) then slice thinly into circles, about 1/4 of an inch thick. Then dip slices into well beaten egg, followed by breadcrumbs. I place breaded slices on a wire rack until all of my eggplant has been breaded. Then in a shallow fry pan, heat canola oil. When the oil is hot, add eggplant and fry until slightly browned on both sides (should take about 3 minutes per side). I return the fried slices to the wire rack so any excess oil drains off.

Next step is to prepare the layers in your baking pan. I start with a healthy amount of sauce in the bottom of the pan. Lay down a layer of eggplant followed by as much mozzarella as you like and some fresh ricotta and top with some more sauce. Repeat layers until you are out of eggplant. Make sure top is mozzarella and sauce.

I baked mine for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. That’s it! Enjoy this delicious dish.

Two of our favorite Sunday appetizers are fried cubed eggplant and zucchini flowers (I’ve mentioned in the past how hard the flowers are to find). The eggplant is the brainchild of my hubby. It’s simply cubed eggplant, dipped in scrambled egg, breaded in breadcrumbs, fried and salted. It’s so good, I forgot how much I liked eggplant until he started making this on Sundays. The zucchini flowers are prepared similarly, dipped in egg then in flour (no breadcrumbs) and fried and salted. Much to my horror after buying these at a farmer’s market once I found that several of the flowers had bees in them – so do check before frying them. There are several recipes (and I’ve tried a few) that stuff the flowers with either ricotta or mozzarella. I find that stuffing the flowers really overpowers the delicacy and earthiness of the flower, but to each her own.