Eggplant parmigiana, also known as eggplant parmesan, is a vegetarian lasagna that’s made with thin slices of eggplant (in place of the pasta!), a beautifully rich tomato sauce, and plenty of molten mozzarella and parmesan cheese! 🍆🧀
This is my wife’s Mom’s recipe, and she shows you how to make this the traditional way by frying the eggplant. However we also mention how to bake them too, in case you want to make this dish a little healthier! 😻😻
1. Chop your 3 eggplants into 1cm thin slices and lay the cutlets out on a large, clean kitchen towel. Discard the top and bottom pieces of the eggplant. Once your eggplant cutlets are all laid out, sprinkle some salt over them to help draw out the moisture in preparation for dredging. Your eggplant cutlets will brown due to oxidisation; this is fine!
2. To a bowl, add 500g all purpose or plain flour, 20g salt and 2g pepper. Give this a stir to combine. Dredge your eggplant cutlets by placing them into the flour mix, thoroughly covering both sides. Place your flour-covered cutlets onto a baking tray in preparation for frying or baking! Important: Don’t let the cutlets overlap; they’ll stick to each other!
3. Cook your eggplant cutlets …
**Option 1 – Frying (Traditional):** Fill a large sauté pan with vegetable oil – approximately 1 inch deep – and bring up to temperature. How do you know when the oil is hot enough? Simply sprinkle some flour into the oil and it should ‘crackle’! That means it’s hot enough to begin cooking your eggplant cutlets! Carefully place your cutlets into the oil away from you to prevent splash back. Once you see browning on the edges, flip the cutlets over. It’ll take a few minutes each side for the eggplant to cook! Once brown on both sides, remove from the oil and place onto a tray lined with kitchen roll. The kitchen roll will help soak up any excess oil.
**Option 2 – Baking (Healthier):** Bake your eggplant cutlets in the oven at 220C | 425F until they look crispy and golden brown.
4. Let’s assemble! Add a thin layer of tomato sauce to the bottom of your baking dish. Now add a layer of your eggplant slices, making sure they overlap and cover the majority of the sauce. If you need to cut or break some of the slices to make them fit, that’s fine! Push down on the completed layer of eggplants.
5. Add another layer of sauce, but more so than the first layer. Then generously sprinkle with mozzarella and parmesan! Add another layer of eggplant slices, cover with more tomato sauce and then sprinkle on more mozzarella and parmesan.
6. Continue building in this order until you run of out of space – or ingredients!
7. Cover your baking dish with aluminium foil and bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes at 180C | 350F. With 10 minutes left on the timer, remove the foil to crisp up that top layer of cheese!
8. Remove from the oven and let your eggplant parmigiana cool for around 10-15 minutes.
9. Serve and enjoy!
If you have any questions about this recipe, please do feel free to ask below!! We really hope you enjoy this recipe! 😻😻
4 Comments
Eggplant parmigiana, also known as eggplant parmesan, is a vegetarian lasagna that’s made with thin slices of eggplant (in place of the pasta!), a beautifully rich tomato sauce, and plenty of molten mozzarella and parmesan cheese! 🍆🧀
This is my wife’s Mom’s recipe, and she shows you how to make this the traditional way by frying the eggplant. However we also mention how to bake them too, in case you want to make this dish a little healthier! 😻😻
If you’re a visual learner, her recipe video can be found here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDuXpyUv7bE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDuXpyUv7bE)
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**Ingredients**
500g flour (all purpose or plain)
3 medium eggplants (aubergines)
20g (3 1/2 tsp.) salt
2g (1/4 tsp.) pepper
200g parmesan cheese
500g mozzarella, grated or cubed
1 litre tomato sauce
vegetable oil, for frying
**This recipe serves 4-6 people!**
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**Method**
1. Chop your 3 eggplants into 1cm thin slices and lay the cutlets out on a large, clean kitchen towel. Discard the top and bottom pieces of the eggplant. Once your eggplant cutlets are all laid out, sprinkle some salt over them to help draw out the moisture in preparation for dredging. Your eggplant cutlets will brown due to oxidisation; this is fine!
2. To a bowl, add 500g all purpose or plain flour, 20g salt and 2g pepper. Give this a stir to combine. Dredge your eggplant cutlets by placing them into the flour mix, thoroughly covering both sides. Place your flour-covered cutlets onto a baking tray in preparation for frying or baking! Important: Don’t let the cutlets overlap; they’ll stick to each other!
3. Cook your eggplant cutlets …
**Option 1 – Frying (Traditional):** Fill a large sauté pan with vegetable oil – approximately 1 inch deep – and bring up to temperature. How do you know when the oil is hot enough? Simply sprinkle some flour into the oil and it should ‘crackle’! That means it’s hot enough to begin cooking your eggplant cutlets! Carefully place your cutlets into the oil away from you to prevent splash back. Once you see browning on the edges, flip the cutlets over. It’ll take a few minutes each side for the eggplant to cook! Once brown on both sides, remove from the oil and place onto a tray lined with kitchen roll. The kitchen roll will help soak up any excess oil.
**Option 2 – Baking (Healthier):** Bake your eggplant cutlets in the oven at 220C | 425F until they look crispy and golden brown.
4. Let’s assemble! Add a thin layer of tomato sauce to the bottom of your baking dish. Now add a layer of your eggplant slices, making sure they overlap and cover the majority of the sauce. If you need to cut or break some of the slices to make them fit, that’s fine! Push down on the completed layer of eggplants.
5. Add another layer of sauce, but more so than the first layer. Then generously sprinkle with mozzarella and parmesan! Add another layer of eggplant slices, cover with more tomato sauce and then sprinkle on more mozzarella and parmesan.
6. Continue building in this order until you run of out of space – or ingredients!
7. Cover your baking dish with aluminium foil and bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes at 180C | 350F. With 10 minutes left on the timer, remove the foil to crisp up that top layer of cheese!
8. Remove from the oven and let your eggplant parmigiana cool for around 10-15 minutes.
9. Serve and enjoy!
If you have any questions about this recipe, please do feel free to ask below!! We really hope you enjoy this recipe! 😻😻
Dani, Gordon & Kiki – Black Cat Kitchen
Looks incredible!
This looks like heaven
Beautiful!