Eggplant Parmesan or Melanzane alla Parmigiana as they say in Italy is claimed to be from the Southern regions of Italy both Campania and Sicily claim it as their. It Is usually served as a Primi Piatti or first course in Italian Cuisine.

Eggplant Parmesan is a staple at my house in Italy. it’s perfect for entertaining out of town guests who are ready to eat Italian food but who may be getting a little saturated with pasta and pizza. It’s also a great vegetarian option and a good Ketogenic option with its low carbs and cheese especially if you skip the flour and egg and just roast the eggplant in the oven with a little olive oil.

Like all Italian dishes, it is perfect in its simplicity, just eggplant, Mozzerella cheese and tomato sauce. It’s a great “do-ahead” dish if you want to be out playing all day with your guests but also want to provide a great dinner that night. I make it up in the morning when everyone is recuperating and it’s ready for dinner. Yep, you can be the “hostess with the most-ess”!

Or, for the woman living in the “real” world, you can make it in the morning or the night before and it will be ready to pop in the oven when you get home from work or after a busy day of activities.

I don’t fry my eggplant although you can, I like to broil it because eggplant tends to soak up a lot of oil. For a more Keto friendly recipe you can just broil it with oil and skip the egg and flour mixture.

Eggplant Parmesan

(Feeds 6 people)

Eggplant Preparation:

1 large eggplant

3/4 cup of flour (omit for Keto version)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 eggs

2 Tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons olive oil

Sauce:

1 Tablespoon olive oil

12 ounce can tomato sauce or 700g jar Tomato Passata

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 onion chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Mozzarella

2 (8 ounce balls fresh mozzarella in water or grate 12 ounces regular mozzarella)

Instructions:

Get sauce started first: chop onion and finely chop garlic, sauté onion in Olive oil until translucent then add garlic, sauté until fragrant but not brown. Add the tomato sauce and dry seasoning, allow to simmer while you prepare the eggplant.

Peel eggplant, slice and salt it. Allow to sit a few minutes while you prepare the ash for the eggplant. This will bring out the bitter flavor from the eggplant, blot any water that sweats from the eggplant slices.

Prepare wash for the eggplant. In one small bowl crack two eggs and beat with a fork, add the milk and beat a little more. Set aside. In a plate, pour the flour and dry seasoning, set aside

Dredge the eggplant slices in the egg wash, then in the dry flour mixture. Add the three tablespoons of olive oil on a baking sheet and turn the broiler on the oven on. Place the eggplant with the egg and flour on the oiled baking sheet and then flip it over. This will get the eggplant oiled on both sides.

Alternatively, for the Keto version you can spray the slices with spray oil or dredge in oil on both sides and roast in the oven. Place under the broiler for a few minutes until brown on both sides. Set aside. Change oven temperature to 375 F.

In a 9×12 baking dish spread a little of the sauce. Place a few eggplant slices to fill the dish then add more sauce. Place a layer of mozzarella on top and repeat until all eggplant, cheese and sauce is used up. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes, remove tin foil and allow the top to get bubbly. Serve with bread and salad, Buon Apetito!

Peel the eggplant by cutting off both ends

Peel the eggplant For making eggplant Parmesan — Peel the eggplant

Salt sliced eggplant and allow to sweat, this will remove bitterness

Prepare two dishes with the flour dry mixture and the eggs for dipping the eggplant slices

Dip an eggplant slice into the egg and then dip into flour making sure to coat both sides

Turn oven broiler on high, oil a baking sheet and place the dipped eggplant on the baking sheet and flip over to cover the eggplant slice with oil (or spray with cooking oil)

Place eggplant under broiler and brown on both sides

Add a layer of broiled eggplant to the dish

If using fresh mozzarella like we do in Italy, slice it up! Otherwise shred the mozzerella

Add a layer of mozzarella and repeat (sauce, eggplant, mozzerella)

Bake in 375 degree oven for 25 minutesFor Other Great Dinner Ideas try a recipe from our Archives:

Babaganush (Middle Eastern Roasted Eggplant Dip) Published July 29, 2017

Shrimp Spring Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce (Published August 18, 2017)

Saltimbocca (Roman Style Veal Scallopini) (Published February 18, 2018)

Vietnamese Lemongrass Beef Salad (Bun Bo Xoa) Published March 12, 2018)

Spiced Chickpea Salad with Roasted Cauliflower (Published April 22, 2018)

Steamed Mussels and Fettuccine (Cozze e Fettuccine) Published May 4, 2019)

Shrimp Risotto (Risotto alla Gamberi) Published June 2, 2018)

Pasta Carbonara (Published May 12, 2018)

Arancini (Italian Fried Rice Balls) Published June 4, 2018)

Ossobuco alla Milanese (Milan Style Veal Shanks & Saffron Risotto) Published June 20, 2018)

Lasagna Bolognese (Published Aug 3, 2018)

Kung Pao Chicken (Published August 23, 2018)

Other great Italian cooking websites are: MemoriediAngelina, I love his site because the recipes are very authentic yet written in English with American measurements! (Not an easy thing to find)

And GialloZafferano is the website Italians use to cook Italian! Its a great site but uses European measurements which is difficult to translate.

A Special Thanks to my guest photographer Cataira Ramos! Thanks for cooking and eating with us!

Eggplant Parmesan (Melanzane Parmigiana) with Keto version