“As much as I love the idea of a ‘Parmesan’ dish – cutlets or aubergine (eggplant) slices, breaded and fried, smothered in tomato sauce and topped with a nicely browned slab of mozzarella – I tend to find aubergine Parmesan too saucy, too messy, too heavy,” says Alison Roman. Plus, almost nothing annoys me more than the idea of going through the effort of making something crispy, just to make it soggy.
“And yet! The undeniable appeal of tender, custardy slices of aubergine coupled with a tangy little tomato sauce and some milky, stretchy cheese calls to even the hardest of hearts (mine). So, I made a version even I could love: aubergine roasted until deeply browned and caramelised, tender in all the right places, slightly crisped in others, layered judiciously with a light tomato sauce, maybe some fresh herbs, a lot of Parmesan (suspiciously absent from ‘Parmesan’ dishes?) and just enough mozzarella to excite you.
“No, the aubergine does not need to be salted; no, we will not be frying the aubergine. Yes, it is still aubergine Parmesan but lighter, fresher, tangier, crunchier. If you don’t care for capers or anchovies, you can skip them – just know that you are, in fact, missing out.
“Unless you are doubling this recipe (which you can easily do – just bake it in a larger 1.9-litre/2-quart vessel), you are only using half of the tomato sauce here. Save the rest by freezing it, or just pop it in the fridge to eat over pasta later in the week.”
Ingredients
Serves two
- 1 large globe eggplant (about 450 g/1 lb), sliced 1–2 cm (½–¾ inch) thick
- 120 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) olive oil
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 small onion, thinly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- chilli flakes (optional)
- 4 anchovy fillets, plus more if you want (optional)
- 2 x 400 g (14 oz) tins whole peeled tomatoes
- 45 g (1½ oz/¾ cup) panko breadcrumbs
- 20 g (¾ oz/⅓ cup) grated Parmesan cheese
- 10 g (½ oz/⅓ cup) coarsely chopped parsley
- 2–3 tablespoons capers, drained, coarsely chopped
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano or marjoram (you can skip, or use half the amount of dried)
- 225 g (8 oz) fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced or torn
Do ahead
Every component can be made 2 or 3 days in advance. Keep everything except the breadcrumbs (store those at room temperature) wrapped and refrigerated until you’re ready to assemble and bake. This is ideal eaten right out of the oven, but it’s also really great as leftovers (cold, room temperature, or reheated at 200°C/400°F until bubbling again).
Eat ahead
The only thing this needs is an acidic salad with lots of shallot or garlic in the dressing. I would go for iceberg and pickled shallots, maybe some olives. But something mustardy with some raw grated garlic would also be fun.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 230°C (450°F).
- Place the eggplant on a rimmed baking tray and drizzle with about half of the olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Roast, turning the eggplant halfway through (I use tongs or a fork), until it’s as tender as custard and both sides are as browned as if they were fried, 25–30 minutes. A lot of the flavour in this dish will come from the eggplant being very, very browned, so please don’t be scared to ‘take it there’, so to speak. Please take it there. Take it very there.
- Meanwhile, make the sauce. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a medium pot over a medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring every now and then, until the onions and garlic are tender and starting to brown, 8–10 minutes.
- If using, add the chilli flakes and anchovies and stir, letting both melt into the onions. Pour the juices from the tomatoes into the pot and, one by one, crush the tomatoes with your hands into the pot. (I like to keep the tomatoes on the chunkier side for more texture in the finished dish.) Season again with salt and pepper and let it simmer gently until some but not all of the liquid is evaporated, 15–30 minutes. Once it tastes very good and feels nicely thickened, remove it from the heat. Set half aside and freeze or refrigerate the rest.
- The last annoying thing to do here is to toast the breadcrumbs (less annoying than frying, though, right?). Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium skillet over a medium heat. Add the breadcrumbs and season with salt and pepper. Stir to coat evenly in the oil and cook, tossing occasionally, until all the breadcrumbs are the colour of your morning toast, 5–7 minutes. Remove from the heat.
- Okay, it’s time to assemble this thing! How thrilling. There’s not a ton of technique here, but here’s how I do it to most closely mimic the classico eggplant Parm. Spoon about half of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a 950 ml (1-quart) baking dish or 15-cm (6-inch) cast-iron skillet. (Cake pans, terracotta baking dishes, glass Pyrexes… you can use pretty much anything that holds about 950 ml (32 fl oz/4 cups) of volume. The shape doesn’t matter, as long as it’s heatproof.)
- Top with half of the eggplant (a little overlap is fine, so are gaps – don’t fuss!), followed by half of the Parmesan, half of the parsley, half of the capers and half of the oregano (and, if you love anchovies, layer in a few fillets here as well). Scatter half of the breadcrumbs in a nice even layer on top of all that, followed by half of the mozzarella. Repeat all the layers, ending with the mozzarella. Add a little more Parmesan if you feel like it and maybe some pepper.
- Now, bake it. Pop it into the same 230°C (450°F) oven and bake until the cheese is browned and everything is bubbling around the edges, 15–20 minutes. Remove from the oven, finishing with some more parsley if you’ve got it stuck to your cutting board, and let it cool ever so slightly before eating. I like to just serve it by scooping with a spoon – it’s not really meant to be sliced.
This is an edited extract from Something from Nothing by Alison Roman, published by Quadrille. Available in stores nationally including at great independent retailers such as Readings, Hill of Content and Books for Cooks. Photography by Chris Bernabeo.