Melanzane Parmigiana is a classic Italian dish made with fried eggplant, a rich tomato sauce, hard cheese and topped with Parmesan. I added breadcrumbs to mine to make good use of my leftover focaccia.
Head straight on to the Recipe For Melanzane Parmigiana ♥
I am being very zealous in saving water and heard about a water warrior on the radio. It is basically an attachment that fits onto your waste pipe. This in turn takes a standard hose pipe fitting. You connect up the hose pipe and then direct the grey water to where you want it. I found one online and bought it with the intention of capturing the water that comes out of our washing machine and dishwasher. I took it home and saw that it did not fit onto our waste pipe. So, I went to my local plumbing supplier and Lynne told me that the contraption was designed for Gauteng. A region up North where they use higher water pressure and therefore have larger waste pipes. She managed to find an adaptor for me and so it went back home.
Today’s inspiration ♥ Recipe For Melanzane Parmigiana ♥ can be found on Lavender and Lime Share on X
I took it out of the box to fit, and Dave noticed what I had bought. He told me that it wouldn’t work in our house. We only have two waste pipes and for washing machines and dishwashers the unit isn’t suitable. The water needs to be free-flowing and not restricted in any way. And so my need to save water was thwarted. It has been much like that with a lot of things recently. I have had recipe failure after recipe failure. My desire to be in the kitchen was thwarted by this and I could not wait to get away. We came home and since then I have had at least one success. This Melanzane Parmigiana was so good that I had to repeat it the next night. I am even going to make more to keep in the freezer for the times I don’t feel like cooking.
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Melanzane Parmigiana
Ingredients
- 15 mls olive oil, plus extra for frying
- 1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
- 125 mls red wine
- 400 g tinned whole peeled tomatoes, broken up
- 15 mls tomato purée
- 1 pinch fructose
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- 10 g fresh basil, torn up
- 1 medium aubergine, cut into thick slices
- Coarse salt for the aubergine
- 60 g hard mozzarella cheese, grated
- 25 g Parmesan cheese, grated
- 15 mls bread crumbs
Method
- Place the olive oil into a sauce pan and heat
- Add the onion and sauté until soft
- Season generously and add the garlic, wine, tomatoes, tomato purée, fructose, cayenne pepper and basil
- Simmer for 1 hour and set aside once cooked to cool slightly
- Place the aubergine into a colander and sprinkle coarse salt all over
- Leave to stand for 30 minutes then brush the salt off
- Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and fry the aubergines until golden in colour
- Drain on paper towel
- Preheat the oven to 180° Celsius
- Place a thin layer of the tomato sauce into an oven proof dish
- Layer half of the aubergine slices on top and then layer with more tomato sauce
- Sprinkle ovedr the mozzarella then add another layer of aubergines
- Finish with the tomato sauce and then sprinkle over the Parmesan and bread crumbs
- Bake for 30 minutes and leave to cool for 5 minutes before cutting and serving
Inspiration published on Lavender and Lime November 6:
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- 2014 – Labneh
- 2013 – Warwick Wine Estate
- 2010 – Friday’s Food Quiz Number 39
This looks wonderful! I especially love the crunchy, cheesey crust. That’s my favourite bit 😀
Mine too 🙂
Times like that are SO frustrating, aren’t they? So glad you had such a scrumptious success with this recipe to make up for it. 🙂
Me too Krista 🙂
This dish looks fabulous Tandy! I want to pop over and have some for breakfast even. My family would like it too and that’s vital! And we try to save water as best we can using rain barrels. Since it rains several days a week, it’s pretty easy to save water here and use that water for the plants.
You are blessed to have so much rain!
A delicious looking meal, Tandy. You mustn’t feel bad when you have recipe failures. I also do and that is because we are experimenters. If you experiment, you will have spectacular disasters sometimes.
Thank you for those wise words Robbie 🙂
Looks scrumptious Tandy.
🙂 Mandy xo
Thank you Mandy 🙂
This looks super yummy! I was actually looking for a recipe similar to this yesterday.. but just ended up making pasta instead, lol! – http://www.domesticgeekgirl.com
My cousin adapted this to use pasta instead and it looked really yummy 🙂
Hi Tandy, I’ve been having a few of my own disasters……love everything about this dish, eggplant is one of my favorites.
It’s Dave’s favourite dish as well.
What a delicious and comfy looking meal. I have to confess that Melanzane Parmigiana is new to me. But I am sure I will love this classic Italian dish made with fried eggplant and tomato sauce.
It’s really tasty Anu.
It is so frustrating when things like that happen Tandy! Welcome to my life lol. This just looks delish and I love that it’s a good freezer dish.
I still have to make some for the freezer as we are eating them too quickly 🙂
Mm, I have never tried, but it looks so good! Thanks a lot for sharing it with us – I will try to prepare it over the next weekend!
Let me know how it worked out for you Carla 🙂