These flavorful eggplant parmesans are a great side dish, especially served with roast chicken or fish. They also look great on a serving platter and can be served as an hors d’oeuvre at a party.
I apologize. In my haste to get out a second food column before my trip to Croatia, I inadvertently left off two important ingredients for the black bean/corn salad: Please add one bunch of thinly sliced green onions to the salad and be sure to incorporate a ¼ cup of vegetable oil in the dressing:
The key ingredient for individual eggplant parmesan rounds. (Photo by Patty Schied)
Ingredients:
One whole firm, shiny eggplant (if all you can find are soft, wrinkled eggplants at your local grocery store, wait until there are nicer ones. Otherwise the eggplant will be bitter). I used a small eggplant for this recipe, so if you use a larger one you may have to increase the amounts of the following ingredients.
Salt
2 eggs
Flour for dusting the eggplant rounds
Marinara sauce (purchased or homemade)
Grated mozzarella cheese (about one cup)
Grated parmesan cheese (about one cup)
Olive oil for frying (1/4 to ½ cup depending on the size of the eggplant)
Battering individual eggplant parmesan rounds. (Photo by Patty Schied)
Preparation:
Step One:
Peel and slice eggplant into approximately 1/3-inch slices. Sprinkle both sides with salt and place on paper towels for ten minutes. This will help remove some of the moisture from the eggplant and make frying easier.
Step Two:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Whisk two eggs with one tablespoon of water in a shallow bowl. In a second bowl add about one cup of all-purpose flour.
Wipe off any moisture from the eggplant rounds. Cover with flour then dip in the egg, then dip into the flour a second time.
Step Three:
Heat about ¼ cup of olive oil in large frying pan at medium high heat. Fry each battered eggplant slice until they turn golden brown on each side. Remove to rack to drain.
Assembling individual eggplant parmesan rounds for frying. (Photo by Patty Schied)
Step Four:
When all the eggplant rounds have been fried, place on foil lined rimmed baking sheet. (To make clean-up easier) Spread about 1 tablespoon of marinara sauce on each round.
Top with about one tablespoon each of grated parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese.
Bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
Serve immediately.
• Patty Schied is a longtime Juneau resident who studied at the Cordon Bleu in London, has cooked meals for both AWARE and the Glory Hall, and has written a cookbook. Cooking For Pleasure appears every other week in Capital City Weekly.
