Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [233]
Purging eggplant As a preliminary to most recipes, you must purge eggplant of its harshness, which on occasion can be considerable. Proceed thus:
• Cut off its green, spiky top and peel the eggplant. You can omit peeling it if it is the young, skinny Italian variety sometimes known as “baby” eggplant.
• Cut lengthwise into slices about ⅜ inch thick.
• Stand one layer of slices upright against the inside of a pasta colander and sprinkle with salt. Stand another layer of slices against it, sprinkle it with salt, and repeat the procedure until you have salted all the eggplant you are working with.
• Place a deep dish under the colander to collect the drippings and let the eggplant steep under salt for 30 minutes or more.
• Before cooking, pat each slice thoroughly dry with paper towels.
Fried Eggplant
FRIED EGGPLANT slices are not only a delicious appetizer or vegetable dish on their own, but they are the indispensable component of Eggplant Parmesan, of pasta sauces with eggplant, this recipe and this recipe, and of special combinations of vegetables and meat. To fry it so that the eggplant doesn’t become sodden with oil, you must have a lot of very hot oil in the pan.
For 6 to 8 servings as a vegetable side dish or an appetizer
3 to 4½ pounds eggplant
Salt
Vegetable oil
1. Slice the eggplant and steep it in salt as described above.
2. Choose a large frying pan, pour enough oil into it to come 1½ inches up the sides, and turn the heat up to high. When you have dried the eggplant thoroughly with paper towels, test the oil by dipping into it the end of one of the slices. If it sizzles, the oil is ready for frying. Slip as many slices of eggplant into the pan as will fit loosely without overlapping. Cook to a golden brown color on one side, then turn them and do the other side. Do not turn them more than once. When both sides are done, use a slotted spoon or spatula to transfer them to a cooling rack to drain or to a platter lined with paper towels. Repeat the procedure until all the eggplant is done. If you find the oil becoming too hot, reduce the heat slightly, but do not add more oil to the pan.
If serving the eggplant on its own, you can choose to serve it immediately, when still hot, or allow it to cool to room temperature, when it may taste even better. Taste to see if it needs salt. The eggplant may already be salty enough from its preliminary steeping.
Eggplant Parmesan
NEXT TO SPAGHETTI with tomato sauce, this may well have been, for a certain generation or two, the most familiar of Italian dishes. Perhaps some cooks find it too commonplace to attract their serious attention, but at home I have never stopped making it, and I am pleased to see eggplant Parmesan continuing to appear in Italy, not just in pizza parlors, but even in rather fancy restaurants. No dish has ever been devised that tastes more satisfyingly of summer, and its popularity will no doubt endure long after many of the newer arrivals on the Italian food scene have had their day.
For 6 servings
3 pounds eggplant
Vegetable oil
Flour spread on a plate
2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, well drained and chopped coarse
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Salt
¾ pound mozzarella, preferably buffalo-milk mozzarella
8 to 10 fresh basil leaves
An oven-to-table baking dish, approximately 11 inches by
7 inches or its equivalent
Butter for smearing and dotting the dish
½ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
1. Slice the eggplant and steep it in salt, as described.
2. Choose a large frying pan, pour enough oil into it to come 1½ inches up the sides, and turn the heat up to high. When you have dried the eggplant thoroughly with paper towels, dredge the slices in the flour, coating them on both sides. Do only a few slices at a time at the moment you are ready to fry them,