Friday, January 04, 2008

Eggplant Parmesan on a Friday Afternoon


Quick, Easy, and Fun Cooking Lessons from our Sicilian Chefs--Mary and Rose!


Today is the last day of my "holiday vacation" so Jacque and I spent the morning learning how to make genuine Sicilian Eggplant Parmesan. Our friends, sisters Mary and Rose Rapisarda, taught us all the tricks including which tomato sauce to buy and how to add the olive oil last. All of the ingredients were very natural and easy to prepare.




The hardest part is frying up the eggplant itself. Apparently it can take two hours to fry up 2 eggplants and you need LOTS of olive oil. This is definitely not a "low fat" dining experience, but it tastes so good that you forget all that! So, you begin by cooking the eggplant the night before, add some tomato sauce tweaked with sugar and salt and layer away like a lasagna of your choice.







Alternate eggplant, sauce, and numerous cheeses, with ham, cooked eggs, and oregano and you've got your base. Add some Parmesan and egg mixture to the top and you've got the makings of a great meal. You pop it in the oven for about 30 minutes so the egg can cook and you're good to go.





We dove right in but you usually wait for it to completely cool to room temperature so the cheese and egg has a chance to solidify. Apparently it's better to eat it later. We didn't want to wait though. Yum yum, it was delicious.






We also made a very simple tomato sauce for a fresh version of Pasta Alla Norma to start with and then added a quick and simple round of Italian meatballs to the meal. Overall, we ended up with a three-course meal. I certainly won't be eating anytime soon. But man was it wonderful!





Special thanks go out to Mary and Rose for all their wisdom and great conversation. Thanks for a great last day of vacay! I can't wait to cook it for Mateo, I know he'll love it.


No comments: