Aubergine parmigiana
Serves: 4-6
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It’s time to reclaim the aubergine emoji. We need to be sending ‘aubergine emoji tonight?’ to a response of joy at the thought of returning home to this mouthwatering aubergine parmigiana.
This veggie dish will excite even the meatiest of meat eaters. These kind of aubergine pics are ALWAYS welcome. Serve it with a salad and some crunchy spuds to make a proper feast out of it.
Find my classic tomato sauce recipe here. You’ll need it to make this recipe!
This recipe is from my book, Poppy Cooks: The Food You Need
Photographs © Louise Hagger, 2021
Ingredients
metric imperial
The tomato sauce
- For the tomato sauce, see the link in the bio above (use 1/2 the quantity)
The aubergine parmigiana
- 4 aubergines
- 50ml olive oil, plus extra for greasing
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1⁄2 bunch of basil, leaves picked and torn
- salt and black pepper
For the topping
- 2 x 125g balls of mozzarella or vegan alternative, torn
- 50g pecorino or vegan hard cheese, finely grated
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/Gas 6.
- Chop the green tops off of ya aubs and slice them lengthways into slices about 5mm/1⁄4 inch thick.
- Get all your slices all in a row on some kitchen paper and sprinkle generously with salt. Leave for 10 minutes, to release the liquid. Blot the aubergines dry with kitchen paper (keep prodding to get rid of the moisture).
- Grease 3 or 4 baking trays with a little oil and lay in the aubergine slices (they can overlap slightly, but if you don’t have enough baking trays, do this in batches). Sprinkle with the 50ml/31⁄2 tbsp of olive oil and the dried oregano, and season with salt and pepper. Bake for about 15–20 minutes, until a little crisp around the edges.
- Start layering. Add a good 1–2 ladlefuls of tomato sauce into the base of a medium-sized ovenproof dish, then layer with the aubergines and a few pieces of torn basil.
- Repeat the process of sauce, aubergine slices and basil until the dish is almost full (you’re aiming for no fewer than 3 layers of aubergine, and don’t forget to leave some space for the copious amounts of CHEESE). Finish with a thin layer of tomato sauce on top.
- Sprinkle the mozzarella and hard cheese over the deliciousness, then get it in the oven to bake for 20–25 minutes, until golden and bubbling.
- Once your parmigiana is ready to go, get it out of the oven and dig in. Most importantly, don’t forget to slide into as many DMs as you fancy with your aubergine pic.