On Eggplant
On Monday night I made the best eggplant dish. It’s not anything new or exotic, just another version of eggplant-parmesany, but it was soo good. In the past, I avoided cooking eggplant because of the way it soaks up oil like a freaking sponge and never looks very pretty (or even appetizing) once cooked. But after this success, I know I’ll be making it more often.
I was inspired by a recipe in Julee Rosso (of The Silver Palate)’s Fresh Start: Great low-fat recipes, day-by-day menus–The savy way to cook, eat and live!, which my Mom let me steal from her cookbook library at Christmastime. The recipe was for Individual Eggplant Towers, but Julee’s method of layering “1 piece of eggplant, 1 Tbsp sauce, 1 Tbsp mozzarella, 1/2 tsp garlic, 1 tsp parsley, 1 tsp parmesan, and 1 tsp basil” –repeat twice per tower, seemed like an awful lot of measuring for two measly towers. Plus, I didn’t feel like dirtying a bunch of dishes and measuring utensils. But I liked how she prepared the eggplant by slicing them and (on parchment paper) baking them in the oven for 10 minutes per side. She said to spray your sheetpan with olive oil, but I don’t have a spray olive oil, so I just used parchment paper and it worked out fine.
*Note to traditional eggplant parmesan lovers: sure, you lose that oil-soaked, egged & breaded goodness, but if you want to cut calories, this is the way to go. Plus, you save time because instead of standing over hot oil for 15 minutes, you have 20 minutes (in a 400°F oven) hands-free to prepare the rest of your meal. ding!
Anyways, while my eggplant slices (which I cut thick–about 1/2″ each) were baking away, I mixed 2 cans of tomato chunks and some leftover pesto in a bowl. When my eggplant (I used 3 medium) was done cooking, I layered it in the bottom of an oiled glass baking dish, put some very thinly sliced mozzarella on top, spooned some sauce over top, and repeated. I grated a generous layer of parmesan on top and popped back into the oven for at least another half hour–until the top was nice and browned. It was so tasty–and the two pieces we had left over were even better the day after.