This Eggplant Parm Recipe Takes All Day to Make. But It’s Worth It.

Sometimes I’m in the mood to spend all day in the kitchen (at the very least, you get to drink wine all day), and sometimes I really want to do the bare minimum. Like whip up some Cacio al Pepe (5 ingredients and 15 minutes and you’re good to go). This recipe is one of those “I’ll be in the kitchen most of the day cooking (and drinking wine)" commitments.

If you’ve made eggplant parmigiana before, it’s pretty straightforward – cook the eggplant, layer with sauce and bake. Not exactly a spur-of-the-moment thing, but easy to do. This recipe adds one more step…you’re going to coat each eggplant slice in flour, egg and panko crumbs before you fry them. This step is going to make all the difference. I’ve made it the easy way and by this method, and there is no comparison; the breading makes a huge difference. You’ll find the breading on each slice firms up the eggplant, and it won’t be mushy and drowning in sauce. Oh, and then you also get to make your own marinara sauce. Yay!

A word on making your own sauce real quick.

I owned an Italian restaurant for 5 years, where everything was made from scratch, every day. And we went through a lot of marinara – on the pizzas, pasta, baked dishes, well you get the idea. And while it’s pretty simple to make, it is very time consuming. It takes about 3 hours to cook, then you have to cool it and puree it. When you’re making 10 gallons at a time in a restaurant with the right equipment, it’s no big deal. At home it’s a real pain in the ass. I have an easier method to get the same results.

I know, before you freak out, there are going to be plenty of you who are “marinara purists”, or you’re just an 80 year old Italian woman who has never opened a jar of sauce before and can’t fathom buying marinara sauce at the market. That’s cool, I respect that. But there is a perfectly acceptable substitute in your market, right now.

When you are in the pasta aisle, look for the sauce on the top shelf. The expensive stuff (that’s why they call high-quality stuff “top shelf”, duh). There will be 4 or 5 ingredients in it, and here is what you want to look for:

· No sugar, corn syrup, pear concentrate or any kind of sweeteners. Those are added to mask the taste of the crappy tomatoes they are using.

· No tomato paste, tomato puree or tomato juice. The good stuff has just “tomatoes”. Preferably Roma tomatoes.

· No cottonseed, soybean, canola or vegetable oil. Just olive oil.

· No citric acid, granulated or dehydrated spices or any ingredients with names you can’t pronounce. All vegetables and spices in the sauce should be fresh.

Most jarred sauces run about $2 - $3 dollars for 24 ounces. And it tastes, well it tastes like ketchup with oregano added. Yuck. The good stuff is $8 - $10 for 24 ounces. But check this out - this is the ingredient list in Rao’s Homemade Tomato sauce: Italian tomatoes, pure olive oil, fresh onions, salt, fresh Garlic, fresh basil, black pepper and oregano. The same stuff you’d use at home, but they do all the work. I promise you, if you buy tomato sauce based on my ingredient recommendations, you won’t be sorry. If I see a good sauce on sale, I stock up. It lasts a long time in the pantry, and I always have some on hand for pizza sauce or pasta sauce, etc.

So, if you want to make your own marinara sauce, have a good time, the recipe is below. But if you want to cheat and use good store-bought sauce, no one will know. Important note: make sure you get rid of the empty sauce jars before any one sees them!!!

One more thing: when you’re buying mozzarella, always buy the whole milk variety.

99% of the mozzarella in stores is made with part-skim milk, AKA gray water. Totally flavorless. It’s what’s left over when they take all the good stuff out of milk to make cream & butter. Never, ever use part-skim mozzarella, or any other low fat cheese cooked. They do not ever melt in the commonly accepted interpretation of the word "melt", rather, they turn to hot rubber, and become chewy.

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Marinara Ingredients

· ¼ cup olive oil

· 1 head of garlic, cloves crushed

· 1 large red onion, chopped

· ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

· ¼ cup dry white wine

· 2 28-ounce cans whole peeled tomatoes

· ¼ cup torn basil leaves

· ½ teaspoon dried oregano

· Kosher salt

Eggplant and Assembly Ingredients

· 4 pounds Italian eggplants (about 4 medium), peeled, sliced lengthwise ½–¾ inch thick

· Kosher salt

· 3 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

· 1½ teaspoon dried oregano

· 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

· 1½ cups finely grated Parmesan, divided

· 1½ cups all-purpose flour

· 5 large eggs, beaten to blend

· 1⅓ cups olive oil

· ½ cup finely chopped basil and parsley, plus basil leaves for serving

· 6 ounces whole milk, low-moisture mozzarella, grated (about 1⅓ cups)

· 8 ounces fresh whole milk, mozzarella, thinly sliced

Make the Marinara

· Preheat oven to 350°. Heat oil in a large heavy ovenproof pot over medium. Cook garlic, stirring often, until golden, about 4 minutes. Add onion, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring often, until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add wine, bring to a boil, and cook until almost completely evaporated, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes, breaking up with your hands, and their juices; add basil and oregano and stir to combine. Swirl 1½ cups water into one tomato can, then the other, to rinse, and add to pot; season with salt. Transfer pot to oven; roast sauce, stirring halfway through, until thick and tomatoes are browned on top and around edges of pot, 2–2½ hours.

· Let sauce cool slightly. Pass through the large holes of a food mill or process in a food processor until mostly smooth. Taste and season with salt.

Eggplant and Assembly

· Lightly season eggplant slices all over with salt; place in a single layer on several layers of paper towels inside a rimmed baking sheet. Top with another layer of paper towels and more slices; repeat as needed. Top with a final layer of paper towels, then another rimmed baking sheet; weigh down with a heavy pot. Let eggplant sit until it has released excess liquid, 45–60 minutes. This step gives the eggplant a creamy texture when baked.

· Meanwhile, pulse panko, oregano, pepper, and ¾ cup Parmesan in a food processor until very finely ground. Transfer to a shallow bowl.

· Preheat oven to 350°. Place flour in another shallow bowl and eggs in a third shallow bowl. Working one at a time, dredge eggplant slices in flour, then dip in egg, allowing excess to drip off. Coat in breadcrumbs, packing all around, then shaking off excess. Place on wire racks.

· Heat ⅔ cup oil in a large skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium-high. Cook as many eggplant slices as will comfortably fit in pan, turning once, until deep golden, about 5 minutes. Transfer to paper towels and immediately press with more paper towel to absorb oil. Working in batches, repeat with remaining slices, adding remaining ⅔ cup oil and wiping out skillet as needed. Let cool. Taste and season with more salt if needed.

· Toss chopped herbs, low-moisture mozzarella, and remaining ¾ cup Parmesan in a medium bowl. Spread 1 cup sauce over the bottom of a 13x9" baking pan; top with a layer of eggplant slices (trim as needed). Drizzle 1 cup sauce over and sprinkle with one-third of cheese mixture. Add another layer of eggplant, followed by 1 cup sauce and half of remaining cheese mixture. Repeat layers with remaining slices, sauce, and cheese mixture. Cover with foil and bake on a rimmed baking sheet until eggplant is custardy, 45–60 minutes.

· Remove from oven and arrange fresh mozzarella over eggplant. Increase oven temperature to 425° and bake, uncovered, until cheese is bubbling and browned in spots, 15–20 minutes longer. Let rest 30 minutes. Top with basil leaves just before slicing.