Parmigiana di Melanzane, a flavoursome and hearty Italian dish, can be served as a main course or as an accompaniment to meat, and like many baked or stewed dishes it acquires even more flavour the next day.
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 800 g aubergines, sliced (~ 1 cm thick)
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 can chopped tomatoes
- 500 g tomato passata (purée)
- About 50 ml red wine
- About 2 tablespoons dried oregano
- 1 tsp basil pesto or a handful of fresh basil leaves
- About 3 handfuls freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 125 g buffalo mozzarella
- Breadcrumbs
- Olive oil
- salt and pepper
Cooking method
Spread the aubergine slices out on a plate or chopping board and sweat them by sprinkling liberally with salt on both sides and leaving to stand for about 30 minutes.
While the aubergines are sweating you can start making the tomato sauce. Heat some olive oil in a pan, add the onion and garlic and cook until softened. Add a glug or two of red wine and cook until evaporated. Add the chopped tomatoes and passata and cook over a medium-to-high heat for about 15 to 20 minutes. Add the oregano, a little sugar and the pesto or basil leaves and cook over a low heat for a further 10 minutes or until the sauce is nicely thickened. Season to taste, remove from the heat and set aside.
At this point you can preheat the oven to 200 °C.
Once the aubergines have sweated sufficiently, rinse them in cold water to remove excess salt and pat dry with a kitchen cloth or paper towel.
Toss the aubergine slices in a bowl with some olive oil. Heat a little extra olive oil in a pan on medium-to-high heat and add the aubergine slices in batches. Cook on both sides until browned. As they finish cooking, remove to a plate lined with kitchen paper.
Assembling the dish
Spoon a little of the tomato sauce into a baking dish (about 14 x 22 cm in size). Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and add a layer of aubergine slices. Repeat the layers of tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese and aubergine, until all ingredients have been used up, finishing with some tomato sauce, a good sprinkling of Parmesan, breadcrumbs and roughly torn pieces of mozzarella.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden and bubbling.
For an extra bit of indulgence, pour some cream over the last layer of tomato sauce before adding the cheese and breadcrumbs. The cream will seep through the layers as it bakes, making for a softer, creamer parmigiana di melanzane.
