divine angst

I am on a roll with good meals lately. Here’s another Sunday night recipe.

I should mention that at least part of what makes this meal so good is the farm-fresh eggplant, purchased from the farmers’ market. But as long as you choose carefully at the grocery store, and try to buy in season, you should be OK. I generally salt and rinse my eggplant—it adds good flavor as well as reducing bitterness. You could skip this step with really fresh eggplant but not with store-bought. It’s just an added precaution, you know?

I’ll also add that the idea for this recipe came, I believe, from Mario Batali, what with the stacking and all. But the process is my own.

Marinara Sauce

1/2 medium sweet onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 rib celery, diced
2 big cloves garlic, diced
1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp red wine
1 to 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
handful fresh basil leaves, torn (or 1 to 2 tbsp dried basil)
2 tbsp dried oregano

Heat 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add onions, celery, and garlic. The oil doesn’t have to be hot yet. Sprinke some salt over the vegetables. Cook until tender, about five minutes. Add garlic, stir in, and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Pour in the tomatoes and stir to combine. Add herbs, freshly ground pepper, wine, and vinegar. Let simmer for at least 15 minutes. (When you get to this step, you can start on the eggplant.)

When the sauce has simmered for a while, puree it in a food processor, blender, or pass it through a food mill. (You can skip this step if your dice was really fine. Mine never is, so I always puree.)

Eggplant Parmesan

1 fresh eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices
2 tbsp kosher salt
1 beaten egg (or 1/4 cup EggBeaters)
2 cups bread crumbs (just use plain)
1 to 1-1/2 cups grated Romano (Parmesan has too much salt, so avoid it unless you are familiar with the particular cheese you get and know it’s not terribly salty)
1 tbsp dried oregano
1/2 ball fresh mozzarella
1 cup marinara sauce

Lay the eggplant slices out on a wire rack over a baking sheet or over your sink. Salt both sides of each slice generously without covering the eggplant with salt.

Let the eggplant sit for at least 20 minutes. Then rinse each piece thoroughly. Press dry in paper towels. You can wrap each slice in paper towel and squeeze; this gets the bulk of the water out.

Add 1/4 cup water to your egg. Mix the bread crumbs, cheese, and oregano together. Dip each slice of eggplant first in the egg wash then in the bread crumb mixture.

Preheat your oven to 275° Then heat 2 to 4 tablespoons olive oil in a large non-stick skillet. For better browning, I’ve been known to mix half olive oil and half vegetable oil. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until a drop of water sizzles. Lay the eggplant slices in the oil and cook until crispy and brown. Flip and repeat. I usually have to do this in batches. Whatever you do, don’t overcrowd the pan or the eggplant will just steam and get soggy.

When all slices are done, lay the four biggest in a glass or ceramic baking dish. Top each slice with a spoonful of red sauce, then with a slice of mozarella. (You could use shredded mozzarella if you want. Also, be aware that fresh mozzarella isn’t exactly a melting cheese, particularly at these temperatures, so if you aren’t OK with that, use something that will melt better.) Add the next biggest slices of eggplant to each stack, top with red sauce, then cheese. Repeat until all slices are used. You could do five towers, or six, depending on the size of your eggplant and how thin you sliced it. Just do the math when you start to construct.

Bake the towers for as long as it takes to boil water and cook pasta. The point is just to warm everything through and get the cheese to melting.

Serve each tower with pasta.