Last summer feeling: Parmigiana

Summer is here definitely over, we have rainy and cloudy weather and leaves start to turn to yellow. In the end to buy good and fresh summer vegetables is almost a mission impossible, but last weekend I was in Italy and then I could still buy some fresh, tasty and yummy aubergines.

So, what is better than a juicy “parmigiana” to make the most of them?

Here is my version for 2!

Parmigiana 

Ingridients 

1 big aubergine or 2 small ones

Grated Parmesan

Cheese which melts easily 50g (traditionally is mozzarella, but this releases a lot of liquid and moreover I did not had it available)

1 can of tomato sauce

Clove of garlic

extra virgin olive oil

Salt, pepper, chili, basil 

Method

The best would be to purge at the beginning the aubergine, to get rid of the typical bitter taste. This means cut your vegetable in slices of 5-8mm thickness. Then place them in a colander in layers, cover every layer with a good pinch of salt (better thick grains) place a dish and a weight on the top and wait for 1-2hours. You will see a brown water drained out, that´s the bitter. 

But, as usual, I did the quick and dirty version and because of lack of time I had to skip this first step. But, especially if your vegetables are not very high in quality or not very fresh, this step really worth´s.

Now, again, traditional recipe would expect that you fry your aubergine slices, but I hate the operation of frying and moreover is not very healthy. What I do then, it is just to cook them simply in the oven. 

So, if you did the purge, previous next step remove the salt and squeeze gently your slices to remove the excess of liquid.

Otherwise just switch on the oven at 200°C. Then lay the slices on a baking tray and pour just a bit of oil above them. Bake them until they are cooked (you will notice a change in color and this should take aprox 15-20min). Then turn them and if too dry pour a second time a bit of oil and go on for other 10-15min or until the slices are cooked. 

In the while put a spoon of oil in a pan with a clove of garlic and some chili, add the tomato, adjust with salt and pepper and let sauce become thick. At the end remove the garlic clove and if you´d like add a couple of basil leaves.

Cut the cheese in small cubes. Warm up again your oven at 200°C.

Now, take out your oven pan and start to stack the layers. At first pour a couple of tomato sauce spoons on the bottom and a bit of oil and spread them, then go with aubergine slices, some tomato sauce, cheese and parmesan (be generous because the name parmigiana comes from parmesan ;-) ). Go on with the layers and finish with a good sprinkling of parmesan and a bit of oil.

Then place it in the oven for 30-45min until a brown crust start to form on the top. Then take it out and let it rest for further 15min. (no worry, it will be so close to lava boiling point that even if you wait it is still warm enough).

In the end, this is a parmigiana! :)