My grandma brought this traditional family Italian eggplant parmesan dish to the United States when she left Italy. This eggplant dish was a staple in the Italian sauce that my family made every Sunday when I was growing up. For this recipe, using high-quality components is essential. It takes a lot of time and effort. It would be a shame to put this much time and effort into something with subpar ingredients only to be disappointed when you eat it.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 50 mins |
| Additional Time: | 8 hrs 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 9 hrs 35 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 9×13-inch dish |
Ingredients
- 2 medium Italian eggplants, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- 3 tablespoons sea salt, or to taste
- 1 tablespoon ground black pepper, or to taste
- 5 eggs, room temperature
- 3 tablespoons water, room temperature
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, or as needed
- 2 cups freshly grated Pecorino-Romano cheese, divided
- 40 ounces Italian-style tomato sauce
- 2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 30 ounces freshly grated mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Lay eggplant slices on top of paper towels and sprinkle with sea salt to draw out moisture. Cover with additional paper towels. Let sit, 8 hours to overnight.
- Place flour into a 1-gallon resealable plastic bag. Add salt and pepper; shake the bag to mix. Place 6 eggplant slices into the bag, seal, and shake to coat.
- Beat eggs and water together using a fork in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
- Heat 2 inches of oil over medium-high heat in a 10-inch cast iron skillet. Line baking sheets with paper towels to drain eggplants after frying.
- Shake excess flour from eggplant slices and place into egg mixture, turning to ensure both sides are coated. Allow excess egg mixture to drip off.
- Fry in hot oil until slightly golden, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to the paper towel-lined baking sheets. Sprinkle each slice with 1 tablespoon Pecorino Romano cheese. Repeat process until all eggplant slices are fried. Let cool slightly, about 5 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Pour a small amount of tomato sauce into the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking pan to cover.
- Place 1/3 of the eggplant slices over sauce, slightly overlapping them. Sprinkle 1/3 of the remaining Pecorino-Romano cheese and Parmesan cheese evenly on top. Cover with a light layer of sauce. Sprinkle 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese over sauce. Repeat for a total of 3 layers.
- Bake in the preheated oven until bubbly, about 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes to set.
- Cook’s Notes:
- Make sure your eggplants aren’t too big, or you risk seeds and possibly bitterness.
- Refrigerate leftovers. I sometimes like cold eggplant the next day, even better than fresh out of the oven!
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 569 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 33 g |
| Cholesterol | 146 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 36 g |
| Saturated Fat | 15 g |
| Sodium | 2463 mg |
| Sugars | 8 g |
| Fat | 33 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
It was great! My husband loved it. His Mother used to make Eggplant Parmigiana and I never quite got there but this recipe was the trick. Thanks, I saved this recipe
I am a PhD food Chemist. As water follow salt, salting eggplant will render an overly firm flesh. Never salt. Please read the peer reviewed and vetted Scientific literature before promulgating scientific fraud which is a felony under the Digital Millenium Act. Dan.
Did not have Romano cheese, so I just sprinkle more Parmesan and mozzarella in between layers. It’s delicious, loved by kids and adults!!!
We loved it. Glad to see the comments from a previous reviewer stating it only requires 2 hours not 8 to de-water via salting. There was still a lot of fluid in the finished product. A little Italian bread crumb in the layers should take care of it. Since we are meat eaters, next time I plan to add ground meat. Thanks
This recipe is very good and it does fill the bill for a classic eggplant Parmesan. A few suggestions: 1. After salting the egg plant you do not need to wait anywhere near eight hours to extract the water from the egg plant. I weighed the egg plant at two hours and I weighed again at eight hours and there’s hardly any difference and this would indicate that you’re not getting much more water off by waiting an additional six hours. Two hours is plenty. 2. You will notice the recipe calls for salt in the flour mixture and more salt in the egg mixture and salting the egg plant. Once you salt the egg plant, this recipe does not need any more salt. There’s actually a lot of salt in tomato sauce and in cheese. you do not need to add any more salt. 3. The recipe indicates how important it is to get good ingredients. Problem is, fresh mozzarella is very soft and can’t really be grated. The best mozzarella is buffalo mozzarella and trying to great that would be like greating bread dough.