Don’t tell my kids that I’m changing the way I make eggplant parmesan. I’ve taken great precautions and if they find out, things could get ugly. The last time I changed an established recipe was Thanksgiving 1998, when I made stuffing with Italian parsley, pine nuts, parmesan and bacon. The wishbone wish that year was that I would choke and die.
I have been making eggplant parmesan with the same recipe since 1983. I don’t make it the way you’d get it in an Italian restaurant, all thick and steaky, arranged in a slightly overlapping angle with sauce drizzled and cheese melted on top. That would make way too much sense. My eggplant parmesan is more like a lasagna, with layers of sauce, cheese, and 700 thin slices of eggplant that I bread and fry in oil. Once assembled, this hot mess swims in a sea of grease that comes seeping out of the fried eggplant once it starts to heat up in the oven. The oil in this dish is in a tight race with the two pounds of mozzarella for the thing that will have you in a pacemaker by your late 20s.
My kids would give up a limb each for one serving. [Read more…] about My Top-Secret Eggplant Project