Melanzane in Teglia
March 15, 2010
I love eggplant Parmesan, so when Lidia suggested that her readers who love that Italian American classic try her baked eggplant dishes I knew that would be one I would try soon. So on Saturday 3/13/10, I went shopping for some eggplant. I went with this recipe because the other baked eggplant dish required a lot of fresh tomatoes and basil. I’ll revisit that idea when both are locally abundant.
Some looking around on the internet for Melanzane in Teglia recipes suggests that this is classic homey dish that has as many variations as there are cooks. It is near and dear to the hearts of Italian home cooks. After trying this dish, I understand why.
The recipe is essentially disks of eggplant layered with enhanced tomato sauce and Parmesan and Pecorino cheese and baked until the eggplant is creamy and the cheese is brown. It does take a while to make, but most of the work happens with little attention required. First I made the sauce, I went with Lidia’s Salsa di Pomodoro, a tomato sauce with carrot, celery and onion as the flavor base. This was a nice change of pace from the garlic based marinara sauce that I usually make. While this was cooking, I sliced and salted the eggplant. The salting removes some of the extra liquid and keeps the eggplant from becoming bitter while it cooks.
The sauce is then enhanced with oil cured black olives, thinly sliced peperoncini, capers and basil. I don’t know that I had ever tried oil cured olives before this and I think their flavor, so distinct from the brine cured variety, are definitely important to the dish. I need a better source for peperoncini. I bought the only brand in the supermarket that didn’t have yellow # 5 in it and they aren’t very good eating on their own. I’ve definitely had better peperoncini in the past. I used basil I had dried from my garden, which still has good flavor and aroma and some parsley, instead of fresh basil, which was really expensive in the market for some reason.
Then it was a simple matter of layering everything in baking dish and letting it bake for 45 minutes or so. Meanwhile, I cooked up some saffron quinoa to serve it over.
The result was divine. The creamy eggplant was coated in a sauce that combined flavors that I don’t think I have ever quite put together before, that were subtle and well balanced while they were unique. I will definitely make this again.
From here on out, I’m referring to eggplant as melanzane. That’s a much nicer name.
