Welcome to Eggplant Parm Farm!
The Scottoline family loves eggplant! My Mother Mary got me hooked on eggplant parmigiana when I was growing up, and we had it every Sunday. Nowadays, Daughter Francesca is the Queen of Eggplant, and she makes eggplant parm every holiday dinner, which proves how much she loves me. Eggplant doesn’t get the attention it deserves, and whether you make it in a parmigiana, which is my absolute favorite, or in a rollatini the way Julia does in the book, the basic recipe is always the same. You slice and drain some eggplant (whether in round circles or crosswise in a long wide strip that you can roll up), throw in a couple of different cheeses and fresh basil, and smother with tomato sauce. Below is my family’s recipe for eggplant parm, and as an extra bonus, I’m also including Mother Mary’s recipe for her incredible homemade tomato sauce, (which South Philly Italians call gravy)! Pair it with a nice Super Tuscan Chianti or in the summertime, some chilled Lambrusco! NOW, YOU’RE FAMILY!
INGREDIENTS
- Four or five eggplants, however much you want
- Mother Mary’s gravy (see below), or Rao’s marinara in jars (no judgment here)
- One Cup of parmesan cheese, 1 cup of pecorino cheese, and 1 cup of locatell cheese
- Two bunches of fresh basil
- two containers of bread crumbs
- 2 botttles of olive oil
- One cup of flour
- Salt
PREPARATION
Cut the eggplant any way you like, let’s assume you’re making a normal eggplant parm, so you’re cutting it in round slices. The thickness doesn’t matter except to taste. I like the medium and it makes the frying easier.
Now you have to drain the eggplant, which means that you put it on plates in layers.
Basically, after the first layer you put a plate on top of it, then more eggplant, then
another plate, then another layer of eggplant and so on. Since I am a book person I
weigh the whole thing down with a whole bunch of big books and I let that sit ideally for an hour or two. Honestly, in my experience, time and draining doesn’t make a big bit of difference. The idea is to drain out the water, but if you don’t mind a little moisture in your eggplant, don’t drive yourself crazy. Mother Mary let the eggplant drain overnight, but I don’t do that and the world probably divides into people who drain their eggplant and those who don’t, like me.
Once the eggplant is drained, then you have to fry it in a mixture of bread crumbs, flour, and egg. I think this is a conventional frying technique, where you dip the slice in egg, then in a mixture of bread crumbs and flour, so that it sticks on the eggplant.
To fry it, get a deep frying pan and use a lot of olive oil, covering the bottom well. Fry the eggplant and keep them light brown. You’re going to cook them again later so don’t worry, it will be cooked enough.
Set the eggplant slices aside on paper towels to drain the oil.
Now get a long rectangular casserole dish, put some gravy in the bottom, a layer of fried eggplant on top, then more sauce, then a layer of mixed cheeses, then basil, then another layer of eggplant, then sauce, then mixed cheeses, then basil. Do the same thing over and over until you have used up all the eggplant. If you read a lot, you’re a genius so you don’t need me to spell it out for you.
Bake it in the oven for half an hour at 350°. I cover the top with tin foil so it does not burn the basil on the top.
Serve it piping hot and go crazy! It is such a hearty wonderful meal all year round!
MOTHER MARY’S SAUCE
Original note from Mother Mary: This is a recipe I invented for tomato sauce. Because I’m the best cook in the family.
INGREDIENTS
- ½ cup virgin olive oil
- 1 large can diced tomatoes
- 1 large can of tomato purée
- 2 cans of tomato paste
- 6 cups of water
- 4 TB salt
- 4 TB black pepper (or white)
- 4 TB onion powder
- 4 TB garlic powder
- 4 TB sweet basil
PREPARATION
In a large pot, put in the oil then heat. Cover pot over medium flame. Cook tomatoes for ½ hour. Stir. Add purée and tomato paste. Add 4 cups of water. Turn flame on high and cover. Bring to a boil. Stir and scrape bottom free. Cover pot over low flame. Cook 1 ½ hours. Stir. Add 2 more cups of water. Add all seasonings. Cook ½ hour more, cover, stir.
In this “riveting, deeply felt and empowering thriller” (Laura Dave) from #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, who “always delivers the fastest, twistiest reads” (Lisa Jewell), a woman risks her life to help her best friend find justice for a tragic crime–and realizes she has more power than she ever knew.
Julia Pritzker loves her new life as a wife and mother in beautiful Tuscany—except that she misses her best friend Courtney, back in the States. One night, Julia calls Courtney and reaches her as she’s arriving at her grandmother’s farm in Pennsylvania. A dreadful premonition overwhelms Julia moments before Courtney enters the house—and makes a heartbreaking discovery. Her beloved grandmother has been murdered, and the killer is escaping out the back door. Rushing to support Courtney, Julia flies home the next morning.
The local police believe the murder was a botched burglary, but the women suspect something much more sinister and enlist Bennie Rosato, the hotshot Philly lawyer, to assist. In addition, Courtney entreats Julia to trust her psychic intuition to point her to the missing pieces of this dark puzzle.
But in a town filled with explosive secrets, events take a deadly turn, and Julia becomes the target of a murderous conspiracy. She ends up fighting for her life, with no one to save her … but herself.
Only a blockbuster talent like Lisa Scottoline can tell this gripping and layered of a story, combining a woman’s search for truth with the revelation of her own empowerment, as well as the enduring strength and joys of female friendship.