Cheesy baked eggplant

Over the weekend, I invited my neighbors over for dinner. I made a simple garlic marinara sauce, a loaf of homemade white bread, a pizza style anchovy bread, sausage and peppers, and this baked eggplant.

Why do people find this scary?

Many people look at eggplant as a mystery. What the heck do you do with that strange purple thing? This is a great way to solve that dilemma. 

The secret to eggplant is using good olive oil, which will impart its flavor on the eggplant. The other secret to this recipe, is to use good imported Italian Provolone, Pecorino Romano, and Italian San Marzano tomatoes. With ingredients like that, how can the eggplant not taste good?

1 large or two smaller eggplants

Lots of salt

Extra virgin olive oil

4 large cloves of garlic

28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes

5 large basil leaves

White pepper

1 cup fo flour

Italian Auricchi Provolone

Italian Pecorino Romano

Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Preparation

An hour or two before you plan to cook, peel the eggplant, slice it lengthwise, and cut those slices in half. Heavily salt both sides of the eggplant slice, and set it in a colander. Repeat until all slices are salted and stacked in the colander. Place a plate on top to weight them down, and set the colander over a bowl. This will drain the bitterness out of the eggplant. You’ll be surprised how much liquid comes out.

The tomato sauce for this is very simple. Place about a half cup of very good olive oil in a medium sized sauce pan and heat it. For goodness sake, don’t measure, just guess. Peel the four garlic cloves, and smash them with the blade of a metal knife (one loyal reader did this with one of those expensive porcelain knives, and broke it). Add the smashed, but still whole garlic cloves to the oil. Now don’t brown the garlic, but as it sizzles, remove it from the heat, swirling it, return it for more sizzle, and so on, until the garlic softens. Remove and discard the garlic.

Place the San Marzano tomatoes in a bowl, and using your hands, squeeze them, and break them up. This way, they still have more texture than regular sauce. Add this to the hot oil and bring to a simmer. 

Take the five basil leaves, stack them, roll them up, fold the roll in half, and slice that razor thin with a sharp knife. Add the basil to the tomato sauce. Taste and adjust the sauce for salt and pepper. Turn the heat off.

Wipe the salt off the eggplant slices, and set them on a plate. Heat a small cast iron pan, and add about an inch of extra virgin olive oil. Place the flour in a bowl. In batches, rub each slice with the flour, and fry them in the oil. Turn them over, and when it is nicely golden brown, set it on a plate lined with paper towel. Repeat until all the slices are fried. Grate about a cup each, of the Provolone and the Romano.

Spoon a little of the tomato sauce into a baking bowl, or small casserole pan. Add half of the eggplant and then top that with more sauce, and half of the grated Provolone and Romano. Add the rest of the eggplant, the rest of the Provolone and Romano, the rest of the tomato sauce, and top that with about two cups of shredded Mozzarella cheese. Press the shredded cheese down, so it gets down into the sauce. Bake at 390º for about thirty five or forty minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is browned.

Serving

What a meal! Pasta with a garlic tomato sauce, cheesy baked eggplant, fresh bread, anchovy bread, sausage and peppers, olives, and lots of wine.