Deanna used to work with us. She is full of energy, and very sweet. She heard about my blog (through my dear husband), and offered me her family’s recipe for making the very best Eggplant Parmesan. This is her recipe with a helpful tip on how to select eggplants.
Ingredients:
eggplants
freshly grated parmesan cheese
spaghetti sauce
In buying eggplants, buy dark ones and the lighter in weight, the better (light means less seeds). You will need approximately 3 cups of freshly grated parmesan cheese (depending on how much you are making). You will also need spaghetti sauce (3 cups approx. or more, depending on how much you are making also.)
Peel the skin from the eggplant and if you have a slicing machine, use that; otherwise you need to slice them by hand. The secret to good eggplants is to be sliced very thin (as close to paper thin as you can get).
Next, rinse the eggplant slices in cold water and place the pieces in a colander, layer after layer, sprinkling salt on each layer. Be sure to leave the center of the colander empty so that the liquid will drain out. Then place a dish on the eggplant with a weight on top of the dish so that the liquid will drain out. Let drain for about an hour before the next step.
After the draining, use paper towels and lay the eggplant individually on the paper towels. Put paper towels between layers also. Try to squeeze as much water out as you can.
Now you are ready to fry the eggplant. Use a vegetable oil or canola (do not use olive oil for these). Put about ¼ inch of oil in the bottom of a frying pan. When the oil is hot, begin frying the eggplant slices. Replenish oil as needed, being sure it is hot before adding eggplant each time. Turn and fry on other side when light brown.
Place fried eggplant on paper towels to drain when removed from fry pan. Continue to fry all eggplant.
After all eggplant slices are fried, you are ready to begin assembling your Eggplant Parmesan.
Put a very thin layer of spaghetti sauce on bottom of ovenproof dish. Place one layer of eggplant slices, grated parmesan cheese and then one layer of spaghetti sauce. Repeat layers until all eggplant slices are used, ending with parmesan cheese.
Bake approximately 30 minutes at 350 degrees, or until hot and bubbly.
Doesnt the recipe sound delicious! I cant wait to try it myself.
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