Solving the Puzzle of Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplant is like eating a dirty sponge. No eggplant recipes in the NYT, please.

I made this and it was a success, even though my eggplants, while small, were still too large and I had to finish them in the oven for about ten minutes. But it wasn't a difficult recipe, especially since I cheated and used a decent jarred red sauce (timesaver). The dish made for a beautiful presentation, and tasted good, too.

I made this last night for friends. Liking to try a recipe the way it is offered before "improving" it, I made it as she said. We loved it. I think the eggplants I did were a little larger than the ones she used, but it was beautiful to see, filling up the whole plate with a fanned out, golden-fried eggplant. Took a soup ladle and put melted mozzarella and sauce atop. No pasta. Good feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. It did stay crunchy!

Marcella Hazan's recipe, when followed exactly, produces a very delicious eggplant parm that makes a perfect veggie entre. No panko, no egg, no soggy breading, just light, savory, sweet, silky eggplant with just enough tomato and parm to give it flavor. The fried eggplant here is, I'm sure, a lovely dish, but is not a "solution" to an eggplant parm "problem." There is no problem, one merely needs to go back to Italian basics.

The Kitchn has a recipe that calls for roasting the eggplant in crushed tomatoes, then flipping them, topping with mozzarella and panko and placing then under a broiler 'til crispy. That's another way to go.

I thought the eggplant coming out of the oil seemed pretty oily, so I popped it on the gas grill out on our porch for a few minutes to crisp it up a bit. Worked great.

I prefer to slice and salt, then brush lightly with a mix of balsamic, oil and water. Then I run it under a broiler on a cookie sheet until both sides are browned. Then I put some tomato sauce in the base of a casserole dish, and place distinct stacks of eggplant alternating with ricotta, and sometimes pesto. Each stack is topped with a small dollop of tomato sauce, and then sprinkle the whole thing with parmesan cheese. Bake until the cheese melts and the sauce bubbles. I like to serve it with crispy garlic bread and either a salad or pasta on the side. The garlic bread provides the crispiness you are seeking, without all of the trouble of frying, breading, etc. Yum.

I believe that ouvo en purgatorio pizzaiolo pre-dates shakshuka by a couple hundred years, so it was an Italian idea in the first place.

After all is said and written about eggplants in this article and comments, I still prefer the Russian eggplant spread, its name translated as "eggplant caviar": "The Art of Russian Cooking", by Nina Nicolaieff and Nancy Phelan, Galahad Books, New York City, 1969, p. 40. Library of Congress Cat. Card No. 76-57797.

The best eggplant parm involves thinly slicing the eggplant, dipping the slices into an egg and grated cheese mixture and then frying. NO BREADCRUMBS AT ALL EVER. It's impossible to find a restaurant that makes it this way, which is unfortunate because it's a pain in the butt to make yourself!

Interesting the fan method I'd never seen that before. Actually my wife fried up the last of the eggplants from our garden this morning. I like the classic round slices because they will be on a plate tonight with sliced Jersey 250 tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, anchovies and assorted olives. Maybe a slice or two of roasted peppers too. Tomorrow, what's left will be layered on Italian bread with a light topping of sauce, a little mozzarella, a quick heat in oven and a few shavings of Parmesan. Hate to see summer pass.

When do you add the Parmesan??

The reason eggplant is prepared by salting it first is to remove as much water from the slices before frying as possible to avoid spattering. Often, I will bake the sliced eggplant first with a coating of brushed olive oil. I have never ended up with mushy eggplant Parmesan, but then again, I use Craig Claiborne's recipe.

When I have the urge to make eggplant, which happens quite often, and I don't really have much time, like it's after work, this is what I do. I am absolutely not Italian but this works anyway: Slice the eggplant about 1/2" thick and salt and drain in a colander for as long as it takes to get everything else done. Grate a lot of real parmiggiano reggiano cheese. Sacrilege coming: open a jar of marinara (SO SORRY) and cook it with minced garlic and parsley and a can of anchovies with the oil and maybe onion if you want) until the flavors meld, maybe 15 minutes. Wipe the salt off the eggplant, quickly rinse and pat dry and layer in a pan (you choose the size, depending on the amount you want to make) as follows: a little sauce, eggplant, parm, a little sauce, eggplant, parm, etc. End with cheese. Bake covered until it's bubbling. The eggplant cooks in the hot sauce with no additional oil except from the anchovies. Then take the foil off and sprinkle with a little more parm and a teensy bit of mozzarella. Bake until the cheese is toasty, maybe 5-10 minutes, and then let it sit so that the eggplant can absorb the liquid and it firms up a bit, maybe 15 minutes. Also, it will be really, really hot, and why burn your tongue? My family really enjoys this. It is NOT ITALIAN but it's pretty yummy.

I love Julia's cooking style, but this is a reach. Seems like the eggplant near the stem would be undercooked. Looks great on the plate though.

I like the Cook's version in which you mix the parmesan with the bread crumbs and bake the breaded eggplant slices on a hot oiled sheet pan, before dotting with sauce and cheese and finishing it in a casserole. Stays crisp and delicious. https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=391443

I got bitten by the eggplant bug last week and used Jamie Oliver's recipe from the NYT archives, in which the eggplant slices are grilled first, and the crunchy breadcrumbs go on top of the casserole. It worked beautifully: silky, cheesy eggplant and just the right amount of crunch. it also avoided the whole oil-splattered kitchen thing.

I grew up being forced to eat eggplant parmesan, and I hated every minute of it.

Obviously you have never used the recipe from Prune cookbook. It's heaven on earth.

I should be ashamed but I am not. I found a wonderful frozen sliced, breaded eggplant in the grocery that can be baked, sauteed, or microwaved. Thus, I can have wonderful eggplant parm without all the fuss, bother, mess, and most of all the frustration. From scratch, the eggplant either soaks up too much oil or scorches. This is a better option for me and it comes from the health food section so does not have preservatives or fake flavors. I roast fresh eggplant for baba ganoush and use the frozen breaded slices for parm.

This article is truly astounding in the twin revelations it provides. First, apparently one of the world's most popular dishes has been prepared wrongly, bigly, for generations, and unbeknownst to all has actually been bad when we thought it was good. Only the heroic New York Times can save us from a fate worst than eggplant! And second, all those folks who imagine they can eat clams or crabs in winter time have been making just as big a ghastly error, because these are summer foods! It's just as hard to get a clam or crab in December from New York waters as it is to get an eggplant from New York farms! Will wonders never cease!?

I don't think you have to make it into a casserole. Fry up the pieces, put a little sauce and cheese on each slice, put them on a baking sheet, and stick it in the oven until the cheese melts.

This inexplicable need to “improve” on recipes needing no improvement suggests nothing more than bad parenting.

Interesting recipe as well as readers’ comments. Years ago, my mamma taught me to make a delicious, minimalist EP. HOLD the pressing down of the eggplant...HOLD the frying, the egg dip and the flour. Simply, slice eggplant thin enough so that it doesn’t fall apart...brush each slice with olive oil...bake slices at 375 degrees...flip over slices...when soft or golden, they’re done. Layer eggplant slices in a pan...sprinkle each layer with breadcrumbs, chopped fresh parsley or dried parsley flakes, garlic powder, shredded mozzarella and sauce (a simple 20 minute tomato sauce cooked in olive oil and fresh garlic). Make as many layers as desired...top off with sauce and grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese. Cove pan with aluminum foil...bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes...remove foil...put back in oven for additional 15 minutes. I have been faithful to this recipe as everyone loves it. Enjoy! P.S.: if you’re gluten free, you can substitute the breadcrumbs with almond meal...never notice the difference.

I bake the eggplant on a cookie sheet to eliminate the frying. It works ver well and i believe is a more healthful dish.

My mother-in-law's version. The hard boiled eggs are the kicker. Eggplant Parmesan – 2 medium eggplants/4 Japanese eggplants – peeled Progresso Italian bread crumbs Shredded whole milk mozzarella Polly-O Grated parmesan cheese S & P 6 hard boiled eggs 2 eggs beaten for the eggplant breading Tomato sauce 9 X 13 pyrex dish or whatever size you have, deeper is better because you can make more layers. Preheat oven to 350 1. slice eggplant into ½ inch rounds or length wise if you use Japanese eggplant 2. Dip eggplant slices into egg and then into bread crumbs. 3. Fry slices in very hot vegetable oil turning once. 4. Drain slices on paper towels or brown paper bags. Make sure to press them with the towels to get the oil off. 5. Cover bottom of baking dish with a thin layer of tomato sauce 6. Layer eggplant slices on bottom. Salt and pepper, generously. Top with slices of hard boiled egg and grated mozzarella. Sprinkle with parmesan and dot with a little tomato sauce 7. Make a second & third layer the same way. Don’t use too much tomato sauce just drizzle it. 8. After last layer top with parmesan and mozzarella and cover with tomato sauce. Cover dish with foil with holes poked in it. 9. Cook at 350 for approximately ½ hour, removing foil for the last 5 minutes. 10. Cut into it with a spatula and add some more sauce.

This is not Eggplant Parmesan. Although it sounds good, it's not EP. The beauty of a traditional EP is the melding of the fat from the eggplant with the acidity of the tomatoes, and the saltiness of the cheese when cooked together.

Bob Longhi of Maui, followed by his daughter, Gabrielle, make the finest eggplant parmesan. The secret is to add quality Parmesan cheese to the flour, in addition to topping the dish with quality mozzarella. Never salt the eggplant - all that does is make is salty. Begin by selecting fine tasting eggplants, of course. If you follow these principles, draining is unnecessary too.

I'm afraid your entire premise is wrong. Eggplant parmesan should never be "crunchy" and bready. If you prepare it like a cutlet, it's an eggplant cutlet. I make it by dipping the eggplant slices in egg and giving them just a light dusting of seasoned flour, then pan frying. The result is a delicate coating that provides some traction for the sauce. I have also baked the slices in the oven -- drizzled with olive oil -- when I wanted to cut back on the oil. Both methods result in a silky vegetable that stands up to the sauce (don't over-sauce) and cheese, without turning to sludge.

I was not impressed. slice it lengthwise, dip in egg and bread crumbs, fry in as little oil as possible, lay it on a cloth or paper towels to soak up the oil, layer in a pan with a little gravy first, more gravy as you build the layers with a little cheese on each piece in the layer and bake it.

sorry, but there shouldn't be a "puzzle of eggplant parmesan". stop trying to re-invent this simple dish and learn how to make it properly from the italian-american tradition of southern italian grandmothers. it's impossible to improve upon what they can teach you.

Poach an egg in that simmering tomato sauce and place that on the plate along with the eggplant, sauce and cheese.

We keep it simple. Slice thin, and salt. Pat dry and BBQ the slices. Transfer to a sheet pan and layer two to three, with a little tomato sauce. Top wth Parmesan Cheese (maybe a little mozzarella cheese), place in 350 degree oven and bake until brown. Serve with a side of your favorite pasta.

I made a very large eggplant casserole, with it divided between a breaded side and the other side without. I preferred the half without bread crumbs and it surprised me, because I was expecting the opposite. The side without bread crumbs was baked instead of fried, so not being mushy helped absorb more of the flavors and was healthier too.

I don't know if it's age or just a desire to eat healthier, but I prefer to grill eggplant slices, then give them the "parmagiana" treatment with tomato sauce, grated cheese and mozzarella (but not a ton of it). With classically made eggplant parm, the breading becomes an oil sponge and a vegetable dish becomes a calorie bonanza. Further, I feel like it really lays on my stomach if I fry the eggplant slices.

One need not fry it. Follow the most easy and wonderful recipe in the vegetarian cookbook "Laurels Kitchen "vegetarian cookbook. This is a simple oiless recipe for baking the very tastey vegetable. The trick is to slice them only 1/4 in. Never under cook or over cook it and never a lot of sauce or cheese. Save extra sauce and cheese for the table. Om shanti

This recipe looks like a lot of work and the fanning technique seems likely to result in uneven cooking while using a lot of oil. As for preventing mushy eggplant, keeping the sauce and cheese on the side can accomplish that even if you're breading the eggplant slices in the standard way and cooking them in a small amount of oil.

My "Nonny," Anna Donargo, made the best eggplant on the planet. It took her the entire day. She sliced the eggplant paper thin and then it was salted and layered in a colander, weighted with several cans of tomatoes, for a few hours to get rid of the bitterness. Meanwhile she made the marinara sauce. Then the eggplant slices were breaded and fried. We would all stand around to snatch the crispy fried slices every time she turned her back! Finally the eggplant was layered with the tomato sauce and grated parmesan. She never used mozzarella. There was never a family party or celebration without a big white CorningWare of her eggplant on the table Thanks for the memories.

I'm not sure why anyone would go to such lengths attempting to master a perfect dish from an ingredient that the author admits is virtually devoid of flavor. Perhaps the techniques could be carried out with less effort (and expense) on other suitable "flavor devoid" ingredients, such as corrugated cardboard, or styrofoam sheets pounded to desired thinness. I doubt if the flavor of the finished dish would suffer, and you could use recycled ingredients! JimF from Sewell, #noeggplantinparmesan

Not sure what the issue is here. My family is Italian and eggplant is not that hard to deal with. I even used to get fantastic eggplant parmesan from a tiny hole-in-the-wall pizza place in midtown that was run by an Italian family.

Gaaah. No, no, no! Fried egg plant just gets oily. I used my fresh-from-the-garden Japanese eggplant yesterday in a casserole. Slice, salt, let sit, rinse, drain then coat with beaten egg and roll in crushed (to bread-crumb size) Mrs. Cubison's corn bread stuffing. Bake at 425 on a cookie sheet til crumb surface appears crusty. Put slices in a baking dish & cover with Colavita tomato/basil sauce (NO fructose), sprinkle with chopped green peppers from the garden and top with shredded parmesan. Bake til cheese is melty. Once out of the oven, cover with fresh basil torn into little pieces. My can't-stand-veggies husband loves it.

a suggestion to deal with "mushy" eggplant. Slice, flour and bread as usual. Fry then drain. If saving for later...freeze on a cookie sheet and throw into a storage bag like poker chips. When you are ready to serve make up your sauce. Mix ricotta, chopped parsley ,Parmisan reggiano and grated mozzarella, whipping it up. Heat your eggplant slices on a cookie sheet in a 400* oven. when the oil in them starts to bubble take them out. Place the largest slices on the plates. Smear a couple of tablespoons of the cheese mix on the slice, add the next largest slice and repeat. Make a stack of 3-4 slices then ladle the sauce on, add a sprig of basil and serve.

The Platonic ideal of eggplant parmesan, casserole or sandwich, is at The Italian Peasant in tiny Tubac, Arizona.

I grew up detesting the soggy, seedy eggplant ‘parm’ that both of my Neapolitan grandmothers made. Then I met Lucia LoPresti, now my mother-in-law, who emigrated here in the late 1960s from the Messina province of Sicily to Jersey City. Her ‘melanza in padedda’ (eggplant in a skillet) departs from countless recipes on several levels, including the sweetness of the eggplant (choosing the lightest, indicating less seeds), salting liberally for texture, rinsing and squeezing to compact the slices, and then frying briefly,unadorned, in a thin veil of olive oil. Then, in the style of many post-war Sicilian recipes, she cooks it, covered, on the stove-top, slowly, allowing the layers of eggplant to meld with the sweet summer sauce and the generous sprinkling of Parmigiano-Reggiano (hence, the dishes name). Mozzarella, as much as we love it, is not part of this dish. The resulting dish is a molten triumph of sweet, earthy, umami deliciousness, the likes of which most Americans never associate with eggplant parm. A friend who tasted it wrote a tribute to it, here,with recipes for both the ‘melanzana in padedda’ as well as Lucia’s simple tomato sauce. http://www.improvisedlife.com/2013/08/08/our-favorite-eggplant-recipe-vi...

My mother loved my wife dearly but never fully shared her recipe, keeping one bond between her and me fully hers. Birthday meal as far back as 13, the last I recall clearly. I know she salted with kosher salt to desiccate before frying. There were heavy plates placed on top. I know there were layers of ricotta. Mozzarella on top. Baking essential for crusty top and edges.

NYT's Melissa Clark offered the Frankie's Spuntino eggplant sandwich in 2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/dining/the-secret-to-a-crisp-and-tende.... This has become my go-to recipe for eggplant parmesan -- we make it just as a casserole and forget the bread. Delicious. But I'm looking forward to trying this new recipe. One can never have too many eggplant parm options. Thank you.

The veal Parmesan equivalent would be veal Milanese with cheesy sauce on the side. (Sometimes the whole is larger than the sum of its parts.)

A wonderful video, clear and simple to follow. As one of those who abhors tomato sauce anywhere and always, I would stop at the frying stage of the batter-covered sliced eggplants, sprinkle them with grated real Parmesan cheese, and grill them until the cheese crust is bubbly and brown. Apologies to all lovers of traditional eggplant Parmesan ...

My mom was taught how to make Italian dishes by neighbors from Italy. Their version of eggplant parm included eggplants peeled, sliced crosswise, slices (never salted or drained) dredged in salted and peppered flour, very lightly, then sauteed in oil till succulent, then laid in 2 layers in a baking dish, with sauce on the bottom, and sauce and cheese on top of each layer of eggplant. The only cheese used in the cooked dish was mozzarella. Grated romano was passed at the table. This eggplant conquered me forever. The velvety texture, never soggy because no salting, no draining or no egg/crumb breading, is heaven.