Eggplant Parmesan — An All Day Affair

Today, after mak­ing a deli­cious break­fast I got to work on mak­ing a roasted tomato sauce that I’ve had in mind since we got a won­der­ful bounty of heir­loom toma­toes from the CSA this week. I roasted toma­toes, gar­lic, cayenne, and banana pep­pers in olive oil and some salt & pep­per then puréed it until it was just shy of smooth. After adding fresh basil, rose­mary, oregano and some more fresh chopped gar­lic, the sauce sim­mered for roughly 2 hours.

After salt­ing the sliced baby Italian egg­plant for an hour to reduce mois­ture and bit­ter­ness (essen­tial!), Megan and I dredged, breaded and fried the lit­tle steaks to a golden brown. We made two lay­ers of tomato sauce, fried egg­plant and fresh sliced Parmesan Reggiano cheese which we then topped with more tomato sauce and buf­falo moz­zarella and then into the oven. We boiled some whole grain penne, topped it with some of the sauce, added the baked cheesy egg­plant good­ness and sprin­kled some fresh chopped basil on top.

Now, I have never liked Eggplant Parmesan, but lately I’ve felt adven­tur­ous and fig­ured if I con­trol all the steps of mak­ing the dish, how bad could it be? Let me tell you, not bad at all!