Eggplant Parmesan
Tomato Sauce Ingredients:
2, 28-oz cans of whole San Marzano tomatoes
6-oz can of tomato paste
olive oil
1/2 an onion
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
2 cloves of garlic
herbs of your choice, dried or fresh (i.e. basil, oregano, thyme, bay leaf)
salt and pepper
1 cup red wine (anything Italian and what you like to drink because they rest of the bottle is for you)
Eggplant Parmesan Ingredients:
2 large eggplants
salt
paper towels
1/2 cup rose wine or white wine (again, whatever you like to drink because the rest of the bottle is for you)
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 ball of fresh mozzarella
1 container of grated parmesan
fresh basil
Directions:
Slice eggplant into disks 1/4 inch or 1/2 cm thick. Line on a sheet tray with paper towels and salt both sides of eggplant disks. you can add a double paper towel layer and keep stacking eggplant, or use additional sheet trays. Set aside for 1 hour. Can prep other items during this time.
Dice, half an onion, one large carrot, and one celery stalk. In a large sauce pan on medium high heat add vegetables with a drizzle of olive oil (about 3 tablespoons). add a pinch of salt and let sautee until they begin to soften and onion starts to become translucent. crush and roughly chop 2 cloves of garlic and add to the pot with any herbs of your choice (several sprigs if fresh or a few pinches if dried) and let cook for another minute. Add tomato paste. Stir and let cook for 1 minute. Add 1 cup red wine and let simmer than add 2 cans of tomatoes. Add another pinch of salt and some black pepper. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for at least 30 minutes. Tomatoes will be broken down by the time sauce is done, but it is still recommended that you use an immersion blender once sauce is complete to smooth everything out. Taste and add any other seasonings you may feel it needs (i.e. more salt or pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, celery salt, black garlic powder, paprika, honestly anything. feel free to experiment with your spice rack and make this sauce your own).
Attend to the eggplant. several light brown pools of water should be on the eggplant at this time that run off as you hang the eggplant in the air. With paper towels, press the eggplant disks firmly to dry them out. Pour oil for frying into a pan (about 1/4 inch thick of oil), and heat. While oil is heating, making the batter for the eggplant. In a bowl whisk 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of wine, and 2 eggs. if batter is too thick and paste like, add more wine, if it is extremely thin and runny, add a little bit more flour. dunk eggplant into batter and drip off any excess then lay down into hot fry oil, dropping away from you to minimize oil splashing onto you. you can probably fit 3-4 eggplant disks into the pan at a time. Cook each side for approximately 3 minutes per side until a nice golden color appears. Place fried eggplant slices on paper towels.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. To assemble the eggplant drizzle a little bit of olive oil onto the bottom of a 13x9 inch oven pan and ladle in a thin layer of tomato sauce. Place your six of your largest eggplant disks down first (you will be creating 6 individual eggplant parm towers. you are also welcome to cut eggplant the long way of into pieces to create a more traditional style eggplant parmesan dish that will then be cut lasagna, casserole style when done. You may need an additional eggplant cut up for this method). Rip small pieces of mozzarella cheese and place on eggplant along with ripped pieces of basil leaves. sprinkle with parmesan cheese and dollop some tomato sauce on top. Then firmly place your nest eggplant disk on top and repeat. Once the last piece of eggplant is placed on, dollop a little bit of sauce and sprinkle with parmesan (no mozzarella or basil on top). Place pan in oven and cook for 30 minutes.