| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 2 hr |
| Active: | 15 min |
| Yield: | 4 to 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 6 roasted or peeled tomatoes with their juice, chopped, recipe follows
- 2 medium eggplants, sliced into 1/2 inch-thick rounds (about 2 pounds)
- Salt
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
- 3 to 4 cloves garlic, chopped or thinly sliced
- 1 small chile pepper, seeded and finely chopped, optional
- 1 sprig fresh marjoram or oregano, leaves picked and finely chopped
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups panko (Japanese) bread crumbs
- 1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
- 1/2 cup corn meal, a couple of handfuls
- 2 teaspoons fennel pollen or ground fennel seed, optional
- Vegetable oil plus Omega-3, for shallow frying
- 1 pound fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
- 1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1 bundle fresh green or red chard, washed, stemmed and shredded
- Freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves
- 24 ripe organic vine tomatoes or large plum tomatoes
- Several cloves garlic, crushed
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for liberal drizzling
Instructions
- Set aside or prepare the roasted tomatoes.
- Salt the eggplant and drain in colander, 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat a little extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, over medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic, chile pepper, if using, marjoram, salt, and pepper. Cover the pan with a lid and sweat the onions 10 to 15 minutes, until very soft and sweet. Add the roasted tomatoes and stir, then let the sauce thicken 15 minutes, uncovered over medium heat. Cook’s Note: The mixture should be very thick.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- While the sauce cooks make a breading station (3 sections) for the eggplant: flour, beaten egg, and panko bread crumbs mixed with cheese, corn meal, and fennel. Coat the eggplant slices in order and arrange on a plate. Heat a thin layer of frying oil in a large heavy-bottom skillet over medium to medium-high heat and cook the eggplant 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Drain the eggplant on a cooling rack, wipe out the skillet and repeat. Sprinkle the hot eggplant with a little salt. When all of eggplant has been cooked, wipe the pan clean again and heat 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil in the skillet over medium heat, add the garlic and stir 1 minute. Add the greens and wilt them, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Turn off the heat. Build stacks on cooling rack placed over baking sheet: eggplant, chard, tomato-onions, basil leaves, mozzarella, and eggplant. Place in oven 5 minutes to melt the mozzarella. Serve immediately.
- For the tomatoes:
- Heat the oven to 500 degrees F.
- Arrange the tomatoes on a baking sheet or baking sheets in a single layer. Scatter the garlic among the tomatoes, dress with extra-virgin olive oil to coat and season with salt and pepper. Roast the tomatoes until they burst and skins split and begin to char, about 30 minutes. Cool the tomatoes until cool enough to handle and peel. Place the tomatoes in a bowl.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 6 servings |
| Calories | 971 |
| Total Fat | 57 g |
| Saturated Fat | 19 g |
| Carbohydrates | 77 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 13 g |
| Sugar | 20 g |
| Protein | 42 g |
| Cholesterol | 201 mg |
| Sodium | 1782 mg |
Reviews
I MAKE THIS ALL THE TIME AND ITS SOOO GOOD,ITS GOES WELL W/A CEASER SALAD,IT HAS A NICE CRUNCH.ITS NOT SOGGGY.I ADD SOME FENNEL SEEDS TOO MY TOMATOES WHILE THE ONIONS ARE COOKING,I ALSO JUST FOIL MY TOMATOES AND PLACE ON A WIRE RACK ON THE STOVE,THNKS RACHEL THIS IS DINNER TONIGHT.
I made this recipe tonight. The recipe was very difficult to follow, convoluted language and directions would make this recipe impossible for a beginner or even moderate cook to pull off. Even someone advanced will scratch their head. When it was finally finished the taste was fair to good. It could have been fantastic with significant changes in the writing of this recipe and putting more alternatives into the recipe. I don’t recommend trying this.
I made all of these recipes & in one day. Everything was either excellent or very good. The parm stacks were the favorite. RR must be more efficient in the kitchen than I am because it was an exhausting day. I guess I’ll be doing it again because I’m saving parm rinds!
The parm stacks are cute and have good flavor and texture. They’re a difficult to eat and are messy to prepare.
Great recipe! Very delicious and flavorful. The Swiss chard was not my favorite, though. Next time that I make the dish, I will use spinach–my family’s favorite. And for the sauce, I used crushed tomatoes because I like the texture and flavor better than roasted tomatoes. Great dish overall! 🙂
I thought this was delicious. I used spinach instead of chard and just used roasted tomato slices instead of making the sauce. Like others said, it is kind of time consuming and messy, but it was worth it. It was the kind of thing I’d usually eat at a restaurant.
I thought this was wonderful! It is very time-consuming to make & I made a huge mess in the kitchen, but it was fun to cook & it really came out delicious. The panko crumbs made it crunchy & I ate it like I was eating a sandwich. My friends & I all loved it & gobbled it up. Give yourself plenty of time if you’re going to make it. This is not something you can just “whip” up, but if you’re in the mood to cook & you love eggplant, I think you will enjoy cooking & eating this. YUMMY!
My family and I found these quite delicious. I omitted the nutmeg – none of us like it, so why ruin a perfectly good dish? The red chard I used tasted fine just wilting it with the garlic. Because not all eggplants are available this year due to unseasonal frosts in growing areas I had to use Sicilian eggplant. It’s better than regular eggplant for this recipe anyway because you can get more uniformly sized slices from this round eggplant.
This recipe requires more than basic cooking skills. You have to be very organized, good at frying, and daring enough to change a couple of ingredients if it will help. It is absolutely essential to salt your eggplant slices and let them drain. This removes all the bitterness eggplant can carry. I found this recipe fun to make and delicious. They come out of the oven looking like big crunchy vegetable sandwiches. We’ll make this again.
I spent all Sunday afternoon preparing some of these meals. The eggplant parm stacks were terrible, time consuming and EXPENSIVE. I purchased baby eggplant, which was all they had, at $3.99 a pound. I followed the recipe exactly. We couldn’t even eat it. I threw it all in the garbage. I just hope the minestrone soup will be better tomorrow night.