Making Melanzane alla Parmigiana (Baked Aubergine with Tomatoes and Mozzarella) 🍆

Sicilians love aubergines (eggplants) cooked every which way they can.

In the middle of the thirteenth century, the Arabs cultivated the first aubergines in Sicily, several centuries passed before they spread to other parts of Italy. For a long time consumption of aubergines was thought to result in licentiousness and insanity. Under Spanish rule, in 1492 the Jews in Sicily were forced to leave the island and many headed north to Rome taking the aubergines with them. The Romans having never seen a vegetable like this before were unsure of it and named it Mela Insana (apple of insanity).

The Italian name now for aubergine is Melanzana.

Aubergines come in many shapes and colours, small, white and egg-shaped, round or large, crooked and purple. This last variety is the most commonly grown in Sicily on the fertile volcanic soil of Mount Etna.

This vegetable belongs to the group of foods known as nightshade plants many of which contain the toxin solanine which means they cannot be eaten raw. They must be cooked, roasted, grilled or barbecued. They may also contain bitter compounds and are therefore cut into slices and salted before preparation. The fluid that is drawn from the aubergine through this process carries away most of the bitterness.

The Sicilians created many different dishes because of the abundance of the vegetable on the island. Since the aubergine has relatively little flavour it needs herbs and spices and lots of Sicilian olive oil to help its taste develop.

Before our last road trip back to London from Sicily our friend brought us bags, or I should say sacks, of produce from his father's farm on Mount Etna. On opening the boot of our car on arrival back in the UK it resembled a Sicilian market stall, huge juicy oranges and lemons, hazelnuts and walnuts and of course some gorgeous plump and velvety aubergines.

As they had a three day journey across by sea and through Northern Italy and France they were ready to eat and as we had an abundance I gave some to a friend who I knew was a big fan of them. She excitedly took them home to grill for dinner, the next time I saw her she declared with delight that they were the best present she could have ever been given because now she had experienced 'sapore vero' (the true taste). She said that her husband asked where she had bought the aubergines because they had such a unique taste like no other he had ever tasted before.

Sicilian aubergines really do have a special taste and we give thanks to our Mount Etna.

In Sicily you will find grilled aubergine slices as a side dish or as part of a starter and I personally love to barbecue them on our roof terrace whilst Mount Etna watches me.

BUT there are three Sicilian dishes that are symbolic to the aubergine which you will find on most menus, Pasta alla Norma, Caponata and Melanzane alla Parmigiana.

A couple of years ago my "adopted" Sicilian big brother Gianfranco came to visit us in London and he gave me a few Sicilian cookery classes, he showed me how to make Arancini and how to make Melanzane alla Parmigiana (Baked Aubergine with Tomatoes and Mozzarella).

The name Melanzane alla Parmigiana despite how it sounds does not derive from the city of Parma in Northern Italy or even Parmigiana cheese in fact the name of this dish comes from the Sicilian word ‘Parmiciana’ which refers to the overlapping of wooden slats in window shutters of Sicilian houses which is just how this dish is constructed, in layered slices.

To create this delicious dish we started by peeling four aubergines and then slicing them lengthways into thin slices, we salted the slices and placed them in a strainer for thirty minutes to draw off the fluid. In the meantime we emptied a jar of passata into a saucepan, seasoned it with salt and pepper, a tablespoon of oregano and a clove of garlic and then heated the sauce. We then chopped up some mozzarella into small cubes and greased a baking dish.

After a glass of red wine the thirty minutes were up for the aubergines, we rinsed them and patted them dry with paper towels. We seasoned the slices lightly and fried them on both sides in Sicilian olive oil until they were golden brown and then drained them on some paper towels.

Then we started to construct the dish, we layered the aubergine slices, tomato sauce and mozzarella until we had used all the ingredients, then finished off sprinkling parmesan cheese to cover. The dish was then ready to be baked in my heated oven for a minimum of twenty minutes, we gave it thirty.

The dish come out of the oven gloriously bubbling away.

We enjoyed our home cooked dish very much and my Sicilian big brother taught us the culinary tradition of “Scarpetta”the delicious pleasure of soaking up leftover sauce with a small piece of bread. Scarpetta literally means little shoe (Scarpa is the Italian word for shoe). When in Sicily and a waiter comes to take away your plate if they notice any sauce left over you might be offered some bread to clean your plate.

Melanzane alla Parmigiana can be eaten hot or cold and any leftovers can be put in the fridge for the next day, however this would never happen at our house because it is so yummy.

Buon appetito

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Now why not read my Blog post

cooking with our Sicilian big brother

Making Arancini

http://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/making-arancini.html