Eggplant parmigiana (au gratin)

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Ingredients

Serves 4:

• 3 large eggplants
• 3.3 lb (1.5 kg) tomatoes
• mozzarella
• 7 oz (200 g) Parmesan cheese
• 2 cloves garlic
• 6 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
• 10 leaves sweet basil
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• Olive oil
• Flour
• Salt, pepper

Preparation

• Stem flat-leaf parsley and chop finely
• Coarsely chop sweet basil leaves
• Peel garlic and chop finely
• Grate Parmesan cheese
• Cut mozzarella in 2-3 mm thick slices and drain

Preparation of tomato sauce:

• Peel tomatoes after plunging 2 minutes in boiling water, remove from water, peel and seed.
• Heat stream of olive oil in pan over moderate heat
• Add chopped garlic and chopped flat-leaf parsley.
• Fry 3 minutes without letting garlic brown, stirring constantly
• Add peeled tomatoes
• Sprinkle with sugar
• Salt and pepper
• Cook one hour over low heat. The texture of the sauce must be thick so do not hesitate to cook it more or dilute it with a little chicken stock if texture is too thick.
• Crush tomatoes and add chopped sweet basil leaves

Preparing eggplants:

• Thinly slice eggplant lengthwise into 4-5 mm slices. I recommend you use a mandoline.
• Pour flour into a soup plate
• Flour each slice of eggplant by laying slices on each side in soup plate. Rub each slice to remove excess flour.
• Heat 7 tbsp (10 cl) olive oil in deep frying pan over high heat. Be careful not to let olive oil smoke.
• Fry all eggplant slices in olive oil 2-3 minutes on each side until eggplant is nicely browned
• Drain each slice on absorbent paper.

Preparation of eggplant parmigiana:

• Cover sides of au gratin dish with olive oil and maybe rub with garlic clove cut in half.
• Place layer of fried eggplant in dish.
• Sprinkle with thin layer of grated Parmesan cheese
• Add a layer of mozzarella slices
• Cover with tomato sauce
• Repeat operation until dish is full, topping it off with a layer of mozzarella.
• Cook in oven pre-heated to 400 ºF (200 °C) for about 30 min.
• Serve quite warm

Suggestion

• Make sure you buy a standard mozzarella and not a mozzarella di bufala because the latter will release too much water while cooking.
• This gratin is lovely accompaniment to lamb, a 7 hour leg of lamb, a Milanese-style osso buco.