Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplant is one of those vegetables that you either love or you think you despise.  Sadly, given my culinary experience, I find that there are far more of the latter than the former.  The only explanation I have for this disturbing trend is that those who say they don’t like it haven’t had good eggplant.

Cue the calvary charge music…

Eggplant Parmesan with Spaghetti

To make my eggplant parmesan, you’re going to bake and/or fry the eggplant in batter first.  Then you layer it in a baking dish with marinara and cheese and bake the whole thing until its bubbly and juicy and amazing.

You will need:

• 1 eggplant
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoon garlic powder, divided
• Oil from frying
• 4 cups marinara
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella
• Parmesan cheese
• 4 servings cooked spaghetti

Peel the eggplant and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices.  Sprinkle with salt on both sides and put on a cooling rack or plate lined with paper towels for 15 minutes.  This is going draw the water out of the eggplant and make it much less squishy.

While the salt is drawing out the water from the eggplant, mix the flour, milk, egg, salt, and 1 tablespoon of garlic powder until the batter is smooth.

Once the 15 minutes is up, pat the eggplant dry with paper towels and dip them in the batter.  Let the eggplant rest for 5 minutes to form a crust.

While the eggplant is resting, heat the oil to 350 degrees or high heat.  Deep fry the eggplant until the crust is golden brown, about 1-2 minutes.  Once done, put the eggplant back on the cooling rack or fresh paper towels to drain the oil.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the remaining the garlic powder in the marinara.

In a lasagna pan or other baking dish, create the eggplant parmesan by layering sauce then eggplant then mozzarella and repeating.  There should be enough eggplant for 2-3 layers depending on the length of your pan.

Top with a generous amount of parmesan cheese and bake until the cheese melts and gets nice and brown.

Serve with a side of spaghetti and enjoy!

Note:

If you want, what I like to do is bake the battered eggplant for 10 minutes and then pan fry it in olive oil.  It’s an extra step, but the eggplant is so much crispier and tastier.  It’s purely optional and adds about 20 minutes to the cooking time.

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Me and Marinara

The funny thing about me and spaghetti sauce is that I did not grow up in an Italian household.  If I had to point at one nationality for our home, I would said “Kansan” which is a lot like Missourian, but we have better college teams.  Still, despite the lack of an Italian grandmother who could pass on her famous meatballs the she brought over from the old country, in my house we ate A LOT of Italian food: lasagna, spaghetti, linguine, meatballs, and so on…

Still, despite all that, we do not have a tradition of the slow cooked Sunday gravy that made me drool during so many Sopranos episodes.  This is why, as I have come into my culinary own, I have had to strive to figure out to make slow cooked spaghetti sauce like the one to the right.  It took a while (and a few wasted cans of tomatoes) before I finally got it right.

San Marzano Plum Tomatoes

I thank Mario Batali for helping me get to the promised land on this one.  I have watched enough Molto Mario that I now know when it comes time to make marinara, there’s only one place to turn: San Marzano whole tomatoes.  There is nothing wrong with Hunt’s if you cannot find San Marzano, but these premium plum tomatoes that come from Italy have a richer taste and seem to be juicier, which is perfect when making marinara sauce.

Like I said, if you cannot find them (I could not for years until Whole Foods started carrying them and I was not going to pay Dean and Deluca prices for them) go with whole Hunts tomatoes.  I find they are the best non-San Marzano brand.

Okay, anyway, recipe time…

Recipe: Elegant Marinara

You will need: (meat ingredients written in orange)

• 2 pounds ground chuck or 2 packages faux hamburger
  
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
  
• 4-6 strips of bacon, cut into rough pieces
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (you will need 4 if cooking with meat)
• 1 large white onion, finely diced
• 6 cloves garlic, finely diced
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flake
• 1 teaspoon salt + more to taste
• 2 teaspoons black pepper + more to taste
• 2 28 oz cans whole plum tomatoes
• 3-4 leaves fresh sage, chopped or 1 tablespoon dried
• 6-8 leaves fresh basil, chopped or 2 tablespoons dried
• 2 tablespoons dried parsely*

* Please use English (not flat leaf) parsely.  The parsely is only there to make the sauce look pretty.  That’s why I use dried parsely…it brings no flava to the party!  Look at the picture above.  See the green?  That’s parsely…

If you want to make this with meat, preheat a skillet over medium heat.   Add the hamburger, break up with a wooden spoon and add the oregano.  Cook over medium heat, stirring every few minutes until the meat is thoroughly browned.  Wash with water and drain the fat if you are watching your weight.

If you are using faux meat, cook with oregano.

In a good size skillet or pot, heat the olive oil over high heat.  Add the bacon and cook until the fat has run out, usually 4-5 minutes.  Remove the bacon and discard.

Add two tablespoons of olive oil, even if you are cooking with meat.  When the oil is hot, add the onions, garlic, red pepper flake, salt, and pepper.  Cook for 4-5 minutes until the onions start to turn clear.

Add the plum tomatoes and their juice.  Now, you may notice they are still basically perfect little balls.  I highly advise against cooking them that way.  They might explode into little red balls of hot liquid, which means you need to burst them before the heat can.  You can either prick them with a fork or a knife or you can do the Mario Batali (and Chris Perrin) method of reaching in and squeezing them with your hand.  Just beware organic shrapnel!

Once the tomatoes are no longer spheres, bring them and their juice to a boil.  This may take up to 10 minutes.  Cover partially, leaving a hole for steam to escape (see the picture to the left).  Reduce the heat to medium and boil for 15 minutes.

Add the sage, basil and parsely and continue to cook for another 10-15 minutes or until the sauce has reached the required thickness.

If you are cooking with meat, add the hamburger back in and stir until warm.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Notes:

1. The resulting sauce is going to be pretty chunky.  There are a couple of ways around this.  First, you can use a potato masher or an immersion blender or a regular blender to break up the tomatoes.  The choice is yours.  Me, I keep things chunky.
2. If you are a compulsive stirrer like myself (you know, you can’t let the pot sit on the stove without giving it a stir) this is your recipe!  You basically cannot overstir the sauce and frequently stirring will keep the tomatoes and onions from burning on the bottom.
3. I intentionally kept this sauce a little bland.  It’s a template.  Do with it what you want!  It’s yours now.  Me, I’ll add 2 tablespoons of garlic powder, another 2 teaspoons of red pepper flake, 2 teaspoons of black pepper, and a healthy pinch of salt.

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