Eggplant lasagna is the parmigiana that is eaten in Italy – 09/04/2023 – Recipes by Marcão

That steak parmigiana is one of the greatest delights of Italian cuisine, isn’t it? No. Although it seems obvious that the filet parmigiana was created in Italy, it was born by the hands of immigrants who settled in Brazil.

Here, we make beef, chicken, sausage, tilapia parmigiana… Brazilians have no limits. In Australia and the United States, chicken parm is a success.

In Italy, you see, there is only eggplant parmigiana. And even though “parmigiana” means “from Parma”, it’s unlikely that the dish was created in the land of Parmesan cheese.

Two regions in southern Italy dispute the paternity of parmigiana: Campania (where Naples is located) and Sicily.

Why parmigiana then? Like almost everything in gastronomy, there is no indisputable record of history. Scholars, however, point to origins that have nothing to do with Parma or Parmesan cheese.

One of the hypotheses says that the name comes from “palmigiana”, “blind” in Sicilian dialect. That’s because the layers of eggplant are superimposed like the blades of the wooden curtain. Or like lasagna.

Anyway, eggplant parmigiana is the recipe. Don’t give me “I don’t like it”, don’t make a face, be ashamed of yourself and learn to eat eggplant. By the way, this is the best dish to end this freshness. It tastes better than steak.

If some people have problems with eggplant, it’s partly the fault of those who don’t know how to prepare the vegetable well. You need to soak it in salt to eliminate bitter substances and cook it properly so that the eggplant does not become fibrous or spongy.

For this recipe, I resorted to a facility found in many markets and fairs: the eggplant sliced ​​very thinly, lengthwise, in the cold cut machine.

You can slice it at home, with a utensil called a mandoline, which usually also takes your fingertips. I do not indicate. Just try to cut it as thin as possible, with a sharp knife.

Thin slices allow you to grill them very quickly before assembling the parmigiana in the pan. This makes it much lighter than the traditional version, in which the eggplant is fried in abundant oil.

In Brazil, it is common to eat eggplant parmigiana with the same side dishes as steak: fries and rice. It’s a slight atrocity, in my opinion. Good bread is enough, but that’s up to each one…

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EGGPLANT PARMIGIANA

Performance: 4 servings

Difficulty: average

sauce ingredients

1 kg of ripe tomatoes

3 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and black pepper to taste

parmigiana ingredients

500 thinly sliced ​​eggplant

1 tablespoon salt

Frying oil

500 g grated or sliced ​​mozzarella

1 sprig of basil

100 grated parmesan

Way of doing

1. Prepare the sauce. Chop the tomato. Sauté the sliced ​​garlic in olive oil and add the tomato pulp. Cook until clear, season and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, soak the eggplant slices in salted water for at least an hour. Drain, rinse and dry.

3. Heat the oven to 200°C. Heat a skillet, greased with oil, over medium heat.

4. Grill the eggplant slices for two minutes on each side, without piling on and adding more oil as needed.

5. Mount the parmigiana on a platter. On the first layer, tomato sauce. Then, successively, eggplant, sauce, basil leaves and mozzarella, until you run out of eggplant.

6. Bake for 40 minutes, sprinkle parmesan on top and return to the oven to brown. Serve immediately or store in the fridge for the next day.

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