Question re: Eggplant Parmesan.

[Arkansas Granny]

I have been craving this for the last couple of weeks and I'm going to make some for the family this weekend. I've always dipped, breaded and fried the eggplant before assembling the dish. Lately, I've seen recipes that call for grilling or broiling the eggplant with a light coating of oil instead of breading and frying. Has anyone tried this method and what did you think of it?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. I've never breaded my eggplant,

and it's turned out beautifully. But I don't bread anything, never have.

I use thicker slices than perhaps a recipe might call for - just a bit thicker, easier to handle - and I saute them for a bit with some olive oil and garlic, and then put it together.

Comes out beautifully. I use a lot more cheese than most recipes call for, too.

Good luck ..................

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Thanks. I'm going to try it without the breading this time and see what the family thinks.

[AwakeAtLast]

3. That sounds really good!

And - more cheese is almost always the best way to go! :D

[Arkansas Granny]

5. Absolutely. I don't think there is such a thing as too much cheese.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. We have been grilling it. Its wonderful that way.

I grew up with it breaded and fried. It was good that way.

The last few years, we've been grilling it instead of frying it. It is WAY better that way.

First, cut it thinker. It will shed a lot of water when grilling and the slices get pretty thin. I start with about 3/4" thick. I slice the eggplant lengthwise. I also take a thin slice off both sides and discard it so I have no pieces with all of one side covered in skin. If you slide crosswise, you avoid this problem. Or, I suppose, you could skin it before slicing it. I think that costs you some flavor, some nutrients, and some textural variety, so I don't do that.

Instead oil oiling it, I spray it with olive oil from our air pump oil sprayer. Then a little salt and on to the grill. 4-5 minutes a side should yield nice, grill marked slabs of eggplant, ready to make into eggplant parm or veggie lasagna.

[Arkansas Granny]

6. That sounds good, too. Do you salt the slices and let them sit for

a while to get some of the liquid out of them before you grill them?

[Stinky The Clown]

8. You can, but you don't have to. Grilling gets most of it out.

[The empressof all]

7. I grill mine as well but

I do give it a bread crumb topping. I mix Progresso Italian seasoned bread crumbs with EVOO, Butter and Parm. I top the casserole the last 15 minutes or so and let it brown up.

[grasswire]

9. I made a quick and easy version just this week

I sliced the eggplants thin -- about 1/3 inch. In the bottom of a sheet pan (it's a commercial pan, but any large flat pan would do) I spread about 1/3 cup EVOO and about 1/2 cup marinara (I had sent someone else to the store and they came back with Prego chunky garden which would not have been my choice, but it didn't seem to harm the dish). I laid down a nice layer of eggplant, then lots of shredded mozzarella and some more sauce, then another layer repeated. On top I sprinkled a generous amount of Progresso Italian seasoned bread crumbs and some grated grana padano, and drizzled some more EVOO over all. I baked it covered with alum foil until the eggplant was tender, and then I took off the foil and continued baking for fifteen minutes until it was melty-savory-crispy edge looking.

No leftovers.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

10. Sounds very good .........

But I don't think there's an eggplant dish out there that I don't love.

One question - all that olive oil - wasn't the dish oily? Or did the eggplant suck it up with the sauce (the bottom layer)?

I am a firm believer in olive oil. For anything .................

[grasswire]

11. I put the oil in the bottom because...

...it seems too often that things like tortillas, noodles, or eggplant stick in the bottom of a pan and get tough. It was less than half a cup total in the dish, and I did use two eggplants.

OH! I forgot something!

I also sliced two zucchini into the layers. That might be a travesty for a purist, but it was just a little added nutrition for us.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

12. No, that sounds wonderful -

your first post had 2/3 cup of olive oil for the whole thing, which struck me as a lot, but with two eggplants, and your revised estimate, that's not a lot at all.

I like the addition of zucchini very much. Me, I'd add a layer of Italian sausage, sliced or loose, but I'm a meat eater.

And, if you're feeling fancy, borrow from the American baked ziti recipe and add a layer of ricotta (in Italy, they don't add it), and you've got a dish that is so rich, so filling, and is SO good after it's been refrigerated overnight or even frozen.

Nice work, grasswire. It's bedtime here, and now I'm almost hungry........................

[Arkansas Granny]

13. Well, I made it and it was OK, but I can see some room for improvement.

First of all, I should have let my sauce thicken a little more before assembling the dish since there wasn't any breading to soak up the extra liquid. I also suspect that the eggplant released a fair amount of liquid into the dish.

Second of all, I like the idea that a couple of you mentioned about putting the bread crumbs on top of the dish. I think it would have added a little more flavor and interest to the dish.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.

[susanna]

14. I love the grilling method, though I've done it breaded as well.

I do like the flavors better with when the eggplant is grilled. The breading tends to overwhelm the delicate flavor of the eggplant, I think. But it's whatever you like best!

[Richard Steele]

15. I've always made red sauce seperately, and treated the eggplant like a green tomato.

The "baking" method never turned out well for me,
so I abandoned it after the third try.

I've never tried grilling it, but I can see how it would work.
A good coating of oil, and then some quick high heat...yeah, I
bet that would make for some tasty eggplant.