Eggplant Parmigiama

Makes: 4-6 serve

Time to make: 1 hour

Dietaries: Vegetarian

Cost: $$

A vegetarians parmy dreams come true. Crunchy panko crumbed eggplant with a whole lotta cheese, served with the crunchiest roast potatoes and salad from the garden dressed in honey mustard vinaigrette.

Felt lucky to have had access to pick all the produce for this meal from my parents garden. Nothing feels better than eating freshly picked, home grown prod.

There’s quite a few steps involved in making this, however it’s super simple to make. You just need a bit of time put aside to let everything come together for extra flavour and texture!

• Ingredients

  Eggplant

  2 Eggplants, sliced into 1cm thick lengths

  1 egg

  1 c plain flour

  2 c panko crumbs

  salt and pepper

  olive oil or vegetable oil for shallow frying

  Red sauce

  1 can mutti tomato

  1 tbsp mutti tomato paste

  3 cloves garlic, chopped

  1/2 brown onion. finely chopped

  Fresh oregano, sage & parsley, roughly chopped

  Chilli flakes

  Salt and pepper

  Salad

  Mixed greens, I used fresh rocket

  Cherry tomatoes

  Cucumber

  Anything else you desire, chuck in!

  Salad Dressing

  1 tbsp olive oil

  1/2 juice of lemon

  1/2 tsp seeded mustard

  1 tsp honey

  salt and pepper

  Potatoes

  1/2 kg brushed washed small potatoes or yukon golds, cut into quarters

  lots of olive oil

  Malden salt

• Method

  Pre-heat oven to 180c.

  For the potatoes, bring a pot of water to boil with lots of salt in it. Boil potatoes for about 15 mins until soft.

  Whilst potatoes are boiling, make the red sauce. Frying off garlic and onion firstly in a medium sized pot with a generous amount of olive oil. Once translucent add the can tomatoes - rinsing can out with water and adding to pot, along with tomato paste and fresh herbs. Simmer on medium with a lid on for about 15 minutes.

  Once potatoes are soft remove from water into a sieve or strainer and give them a bit of a toss in there. This will mush them up a bit, you want them to break up a bit and soften, this will help them crisp up in the oven.

  Transfer onto a large baking tray, drizzle with lots of olive oil and place in oven for about 45 mins, tossing every now and then.

  For the eggplant, pre-heat a large flat bottomed pan and fill with about 1” oil. Keep on medium heat.

  Whisk two eggs in a medium sized bowl. In another bowl combine flour and panko together. Prepare a large tray to place crumbed eggplant onto. Dip each slice of eggplant, one at a time into the egg, followed by the flour panko.

  As you are doing this, if your oil is hot enough, begin to fry the eggplant in batches. Turning to cook both sides after about 5 minutes or once golden. Transfer once cooked onto a tray lined with kitchen paper to absorb excess oil.

  Once all eggplant is cooked, add to a large baking tray, or remove kitchen paper of the same tray if that works. Layer ontop of the eggplant a generous amount of red sauce, followed by shredded mozzarella and chopped parsley. Cook in the oven for about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden.

  For the salad, assemble the dressing and add salad ingredients to a bowl. Don’t dress until you serve.

  Potatoes should be crunchy! parmys cheesy and melt in you mouth with a sharp sweet salad to cut through it all.