Eggplant Parmigiana

Holler. Sometimes I really don't know how to start these things. How about this: I made Eggplant Parmigiana the other day. Did you know that eggplants come in all shapes and sizes? They do! Mine looked like this:

but they can also look like this. Makes mine look like a snoozefest. Whatever.

Here's the quick and dirty breakdown. I bought an eggplant at the farmer's market. I'd never made eggplant parm in my life, and I'm Italian. Even though being American means shedding your heritage to adopt the cultural ideas of a shmorgasborg obsessed with 'living the dream', I just feel like I'm doing my ancestors some kind of injustice. So I made eggplant parmigiana. It turned out really well, which I attribute mostly to the quality of the ingredients.

In spirit of my last paragraph, here's some information I think you should know. In America, we know this dish as Egglplant Parmesan, cuz most people make it with Parmesan. This is simply a modification on an orginal dish that gave no preference for the cheese used. The name is REALLY Eggplant Parmigiana, for different reasons, according to different legends. My favorite (and most probable) is because the Italian word 'parmicana' (which refers to slats of wood that compose a shutter) overlap in the same way that the slices of eggplant do in this dish. Cool. Also, for all of you meat lovers who consider this dish a "vegetarian alternative" to Chicken or Veal Parm, that's a misconception. Well what does an Italian American do to a dish after 'making it' in the promised land of milk and honey? She adds meat to it! The impacts of affluence are shocking. Anyway, I just wanted to subtly champion vegetables... eggplant parm came first!

For this recipe you need the following:

• 1 medium sized eggplant
• 28 oz. can crushed tomatos (mine from Jersey!)
• 3 medium sized balls of mozzarella. If you can get them from a local source and in their original liquid, it tends to be A LOT more tasty
• handful of fresh basil
• breadcrumbs (try to get something more real than 'shake n' bake')
• olive oil
• eggs
• flour

My awesome new roommate took some pictures for me. The process went something like this:

1. Gather goods from farmer's market, and the corner store that sells local goods a couple days before.
2. Drive like an idiot to the nearest Wine & Spirits' store (before they close) to buy a bottle of vino for dinner.
3. Get a $76 ticket for having the tail end of my car hanging over the 'no park' line for 8 minutes
4. Drive like an idiot home thinking about how much I would really need that bottle of wine.
5. Get home an pour a nice glass of wine.

Ok, for real this time... the instructions:

1. Crush/mince 3 cloves of garlic.
2. Sautee in olive oil till just browning.
3. Add can of tomatos.
4. Flavor with salt and black pepper to taste.
5. Drizzle a thick trail of sugar around the pan. Just do this once... it'll cut the acidity of the tomatos.
6. Give a few shakes of red pepper flakes.
7. Stir, and let sauce simmer till it thickens a bit. (About 20 minutes.)
8. Slice eggplant into 1/2" slices. Set aside.
9. Beat three eggs in a shallow bowl or deep dish.
10. Put white flour in a shallow bowl or deep dish.
11. Put bread crumbs in a shallow bowl or deep dish. Hope you get the idea there.
12. Press eggplant slices into flour on each side. Get it to stick.
13. Flip into the egg on both sides.
14. Dredge eggy eggplant in breadcrumbs to coat. Set aside.
15. Repeat for all slices.
16. Take some sauce from your sauce pan and spread a thin layer over your baking dish. (Usually best with a glass dish.)
17. Heat a thick layer of olive oil on high.
18. Working in batches, fry each side of the eggplant till golden.
19. Transfer to glass dish when each side has been browned.
20. Do this for all slices.
21. Cover eggplant with tomato sauce.
22. Places lots of slices of mozzarella on top.
23. Tear piece of basil and place on top.
24. Cover with aluminum foil if you know what's good for you.
25. Put in the oven at 350 for about 20-30 minutes. You're looking for the cheese to bubble.
26. Remove and let stand for a bit, or dig in and burn your tongue. (Due to the wine, or my hunger, or both, I totally neglected to take pictures of the final result!)

So I paired this dish nicely with a bottle of "Goats do Roam" red wine. Sike. More like I was RUNNING through the liquor store when I wondered what South Africa's grapes tasted like. I mean, this bottle was on sale, it had a twist off cap, and was simply labeled "Red 2008". (Evidently it's a balanced mix of grapes.) The shocking thing was that I polished off a whole bottle (with some help), supremely enjoyed it, experienced no headache, and bought the same wine 4 days later to bring to a party. As far as I can tell, South Africa has some nice grapes.

Roam on, goats.