Our Best-Ever Eggplant Parmesan Recipe Is A Worthwhile Labor Of Love

Delish

Similar to chicken Parm, eggplant Parmesan is a classic dish of fried, crispy eggplant layered with marinara sauce and cheese and baked until bubbling.

Transcript

00:00 Hey, it's Frankie from Delish.

00:02 I'm gonna show you how to make

00:03 one of our most amazing eggplant parms.

00:07 Eggplant parm could be so good,

00:09 but it could also be pretty terrible.

00:11 It depends on the sauce to crunchy eggplant

00:14 to cheese ratio.

00:16 It's hard to find really good eggplant parm

00:18 when you're dining out at restaurants.

00:20 I have my personal favorite.

00:21 But today I get to show you

00:23 how you can make it the best way at home.

00:25 We have our eggplant.

00:27 There are a variety of eggplants that you can use.

00:29 You can use American, you can use an Italian eggplant.

00:32 Why wouldn't we use an Italian eggplant for eggplant parm?

00:36 We're about to salt our eggplant

00:37 and salting eggplant releases some of that bitterness

00:41 that might be present.

00:42 Eggplant is a really high water content vegetable.

00:46 When you add salt to it,

00:47 it's going to pull out a lot of that moisture,

00:50 which is osmosis.

00:51 And it's also going to deeply penetrate

00:54 the eggplant with flavor.

00:55 It will create that crispy eggplant parm

00:58 that you are looking for.

01:01 The cut eggplant go onto a paper towel lined sheet tray.

01:05 I'm going to salt each piece.

01:07 I'm going to layer another piece of paper towel on top

01:09 until I'm done with all the eggplant.

01:12 And then I'm going to put another sheet tray on top of that

01:14 and weigh it down with a good old sturdy cast iron pan.

01:18 And let that sit for about 45 minutes to an hour.

01:21 And now the reveal of the eggplant.

01:24 All of the moisture has been released.

01:27 You can see this paper towel is saturated

01:30 and it's disgusting.

01:31 So we're going to put it aside,

01:33 but it's so exciting because you can't really tell,

01:36 but the eggplant, they're still wet to the touch,

01:38 which is fine, but very so slightly are thinner.

01:43 As far as the breading procedure is concerned,

01:46 this is what is going to make

01:48 these delicious eggplant pop.

01:52 We salted the eggplant, but we need to season in layers.

01:55 I'm going to add one tablespoon of salt

01:57 to the all-purpose flour and whisk that to combine.

02:00 I'm going to whisk my eggs and milk until combined.

02:03 I'm going to fold the Parmesan cheese

02:05 and oregano into pinko.

02:07 Once you coat the eggplant and flour,

02:09 you are going to put it into that whipped egg

02:12 and milk mixture.

02:13 The flour is going to help the egg adhere to the eggplant.

02:18 And from there, you are going to put it in that delicious,

02:21 crunchy coating of breadcrumb and oregano

02:24 and Parmesan cheese.

02:25 Parmesan cheese is going to brown up nicely.

02:28 It's going to get caramelized in that hot oil.

02:32 So it's going to create another barrier

02:34 of crispy, crunchy layer around the eggplant

02:38 in addition to the breadcrumb.

02:39 Breadcrumb is obviously the most important thing

02:43 in this dish besides the cheese and the sauce,

02:46 but panko isn't really that traditional in eggplant parm.

02:50 We are using panko for the obvious reasons

02:52 because it's crispy, it's crunchy,

02:54 it has another layer of texture that people want

02:57 as opposed to using plain breadcrumb.

02:59 There are some tips to making sure

03:01 that this part of the process is as clean as possible.

03:05 When you start with your flour, you would use your tongs,

03:08 dip the eggplant each side into the flour,

03:11 transfer it to the egg, dip each side into the egg,

03:15 and then drop it into the panko mixture

03:17 and use your left hand or your non-dominant hand

03:20 to pat it on because using,

03:23 it's gonna get messy since there's already egg on the tongs,

03:25 the egg's gonna get into the panko,

03:27 it's gonna get all gross and form those little balls

03:29 that you could eat, fry up and eat later,

03:30 but just keep it clean.

03:32 Use your hand, mash that panko onto each side

03:36 and compress it to the eggplant.

03:38 And that's one of the last tips

03:40 to forming that crispy layer on the eggplant.

03:43 When frying eggplant, you wanna make sure

03:44 you have a skillet with a little bit of a high side.

03:46 You'll add the oil in about a quarter to a third way up.

03:50 Make sure that the oil gets to about 360 degrees

03:53 because once you add the eggplant into the hot oil,

03:56 the temperature is going to drop immediately

03:58 and it'll stay at a steady 345 to 350 degrees,

04:03 which is where you want it to be.

04:04 Another way to test if the oil is done

04:07 is to either use a thermometer, which I have here,

04:11 or you could take a couple of the breadcrumb

04:13 and sprinkle it into the oil

04:15 and if it starts to fry up, then it's ready.

04:19 See, a little bit of it's frying up.

04:21 That means that it's ready.

04:23 It's hot and ready.

04:24 We'll fry the eggplant on each side

04:26 for about two to three minutes

04:27 until it's golden brown and crispy.

04:30 Do not overcrowd your pan when frying anything

04:33 because it will create sweat,

04:37 which means that it will draw moisture out of the thing

04:39 that is being fried and the thing, the eggplant,

04:43 will not get that crispy golden brown layer on the outside

04:46 because it's just steaming.

04:47 I'm gonna remove the final batch of eggplant.

04:49 They're so golden brown and crispy.

04:51 I even snuck a bite when you weren't looking.

04:54 I usually use a paper towel lined plate,

04:56 but because we're frying so many pieces,

04:59 but if you're layering them,

05:00 like stacking them on top of a plate

05:02 and you don't have enough room,

05:03 then what's gonna happen is they're gonna get soggy bottoms

05:06 and that will defeat the whole purpose

05:07 of why we just fried the eggplant in the first place.

05:10 So use a sheet tray lined with a rack.

05:14 Put a piece of paper towel on the bottom

05:15 so that all the grease falls into the paper towel

05:17 and the paper towel absorbs it,

05:18 which is an easier cleanup.

05:21 And that way, the air will circulate around the eggplant

05:24 to cool it down and it will maintain its crispy exterior.

05:28 Pro tip, we salted the eggplant,

05:30 we salted the flour for the dredging of the eggplant,

05:33 but once we fry the eggplant, when you remove it,

05:35 it kinda loses some of its salty essence.

05:38 So go ahead and just sprinkle

05:40 a little bit more salt over top.

05:42 We have our marinara sauce

05:43 that has been cooking on the stove

05:45 and you can see those really pretty pieces

05:47 of basil floating around, the onion, the garlic.

05:51 Typically with an eggplant parm,

05:52 you don't want something that's been stewing

05:53 on the stove all day like a meat sauce.

05:56 There has to be a balance in marinara sauce

05:57 and there has to be a balance in marinara sauce

05:59 for a really heavily rich fried food dish like this.

06:03 You still want that brightness,

06:04 that acid to cut right through

06:06 that delicious, fried, hunky piece of eggplant.

06:11 When I'm making tomato sauce,

06:13 I typically lean on San Marzano

06:15 because it has the perfect skin to seed to flesh ratio.

06:19 It's tender, it melts in your mouth,

06:22 it crushes well, it cooks down well, it's aromatic.

06:25 It's just a good tomato varietal overall.

06:28 Mutti, Bianco de Napoli,

06:30 they're all really good, solid brands

06:32 of San Marzano tomato that you can use.

06:35 And there is an addition of tomato paste in here.

06:38 If you are in a really big pinch

06:40 and you can't make homemade tomato sauce,

06:42 you can turn to a jarred variety

06:46 like Lidia Bastianich or Rao's.

06:48 Buy really good Pecorino Romano or Parmesan.

06:51 We're using Parmesan in this recipe.

06:53 And grate it yourself.

06:55 Same with the whole milk mozzarella.

06:57 Grate it yourself.

06:58 Do not buy the bagged grated cheese,

07:00 that anti-caking agent.

07:01 We are here for the cheese pull,

07:03 so we want the freshest stuff.

07:05 We wanna do it ourselves.

07:06 And we want all of the cheese strands

07:09 to be dripping all over our face when we eat.

07:11 When layering your eggplant parm,

07:13 you wanna start with sauce on the bottom

07:15 so that you end with the sauce on top and the cheese.

07:18 The sauce acts as the wrapping paper around the dish.

07:22 So we'll start with a layer of sauce.

07:24 We'll add our eggplant in one even layer.

07:27 You might have a little bit of overlapping.

07:29 You might have to tear a couple pieces

07:31 since we're trying to fit circles into a rectangular dish.

07:34 It's totally fine.

07:35 Overlapping, tearing, it's all fine.

07:38 It's all part of the process.

07:39 You're gonna eat it at the end anyway.

07:41 Nobody's gonna know.

07:42 Once that's in, you add your layer of cheese,

07:45 then start over again with more sauce,

07:47 more eggplant, more cheese,

07:49 and continue for about three or four layers

07:51 until it's nice and compacted in the dish

07:54 and it comes up to about just, you know,

07:56 shy of about an eighth of an inch of the top.

08:00 This eggplant parm is like four layers deep,

08:02 tons of cheese, tons of sauce,

08:04 all the eggplant in the world.

08:06 We're just gonna put it in the oven

08:07 for about 40 to 45 minutes at 350

08:10 to get it heated through, that cheese melting,

08:12 the sauce bubbly.

08:14 We'll put a piece of foil on top

08:16 for three quarters of the way through,

08:18 and then we'll remove it at the end

08:19 so that the top could get really golden brown

08:21 and those cute little bubbles will form.

08:24 I am at the eggplant parm tasting end of the journey.

08:27 The tomato sauce, the crunchy eggplant, the parm,

08:31 the mozzarella's all melded together in the oven.

08:34 The layer's melted together.

08:36 The outside of the eggplant latched onto the sauce,

08:38 the cheese, so it's tender, a little bit crispy

08:42 if you get some of those outer edges on the top.

08:44 I stacked this four layers deep.

08:46 It's intense, it's delicious, and I'm gonna try it

08:48 because there's nothing else to do.

08:52 Every step of the way we season this dish,

08:54 it's helping create those layers

08:56 from when we salted the eggplant

08:58 to adding the salt to the flour, the dredging,

09:00 the frying, the sauce, the cheese,

09:03 has that umami, salty factor to it.

09:06 Another pro tip though,

09:08 once those layers get to sit in the fridge overnight

09:10 and you reheat it the next day, it's going to be heavenly.

09:15 For more recipes just like this one,

09:18 stay right here at delish.com.

09:20 (upbeat music)

09:22 (upbeat music)

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