An "Italian" Adventure - What Fun!!

I bought a book several months ago called Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich.  She has a program on PBS and I have watched it several times (which has absolutely nothing to do with this recipe!).  Anyway, I was glancing through the cookbook last night while waiting for dinner to cook and came upon the recipe for Eggplant Parmigiana.  Hmmm - I have never made but it sounds good - so a new adventure has been started.  Of course, it involved a trip to the grocery store - OH WELL!!

Don't worry it isn't expensive. You also need "fresh" mozzarella, not the "shredded" type.  So I bought a gallon of milk and made my own.  You can find the link to make the mozzarella cheese here:
home made mozzarella cheese

Just a word of warning, this is not going to be one of those recipes that you just can wipe up in a matter of minutes!!

For this to be truly Italian, we are going to make the tomato sauce from scratch!  YES, I said from scratch!!

Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
1 35 ounce can of Italian Tomatoes
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 small onion
1/4 cup chopped and peeled carrots (Oops!  I forgot to get carrots, so I omitted this)
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
2 dried bay leaves

Pass the tomatoes through a food mill fitted with a fine mesh disc.

Heat the olive oil in a 3 or 4 quart pan over medium heat, add the onions and cook for about 3 minutes.  Add the carrots (oops!!!) and the celery and cook, stirring occasionally for another 5 minutes.

Add the food milled tomatoes to the pot along with the bay leaves.  Season lightly with salt and crushed red pepper.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes.

Eggplant Parmigiana
Ingredients
2 or 3 medium eggplants (about 3 pounds)
3 large eggs
1 tsp salt
all purpose flour for dredging
2 cups fine, dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup vegetable oil, as needed
1/2 cup olive oil, as needed
Tomato sauce (see above)
2 cups grated parmesan cheese
12 fresh basil leaves
1 pound fresh mozzarella cheese (see link above)

Trim the stems and ends from eggplants.  Remove peels (NOTE: Lidia does not remove the peels, but I know my family and they won't eat them with the peels!).
Cut the eggplant in 1/2 inch thick slices place them in a colander.  Sprinkle with salt and let drain for 1 hour.  Rinse the eggplant and pat dry.
Whisk the eggs and salt together in a large flat baking pan or wide shallow bowl.  Spread the bread crumbs and flour in an even layer in two separate, wide shallow bowls or over sheets of wax paper.
Dredge the eggplant in the flour, shake off excess.
Dip the floured eggplant in the egg mixture being sure to cover all sides.  Let excess egg drop back into pan. Then lay eggplant in bread crumbs, making sure all sides are covered.
Pour 1/2 cup of olive oil and vegetable oil into a medium skillet.  Heat over medium heat.  Add as many eggplants as you can without them touching.  Cook until well browned on all sides.  Remove and repeat with remaining eggplants.

Preheat oven to 375.
Heat the tomato sauce to simmering.
Ladle enough sauce into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish to cover the bottom.  Sprinkle with an even layer of grated cheese, top with a layer of eggplant and over with sauce to coat evenly,  Top with a layer of mozzarella cheese.  Repeat layering.
Cover with aluminum foil and poke several holes in the foil with tip of knife.  Bake for 30 minutes.
Uncover and bake for an additional 15 minutes until the top layer of cheese if golden in spots.  Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.  Then cut in squares and serve.
ENJOY!!

The Verdict

My husband loved it.  I thought it was good.  I did think the tomato sauce was really good, I am definitely going to use that again.  Will I make the eggplant parmigiana again - not sure.  It took a lot of work to make it, so it would depend on how "energetic" I feel at the time - LOL!