Pot Luck Lunch………
Tomorrow my office is having a pot-luck luncheon; everyone in the office is bringing something for lunch. We will be a group of ten, and hopefully, what I decided to bring everyone will enjoy!
So I was thinking, what should I make, bring, or buy; truthfully I really did not want to go out and buy anything. For the simple reason; that at the end of the day, my own destination needs to be home.
It’s not a secret that I cook on Sundays for the week….so I thought why not take advantage of this task. Hmm, I have fried eggplant in the freezer, I have shredded mozzarella cheese in the fridge; all I need to do is make a marinara sauce when I get home.
So that is what I did, and what I am bringing tomorrow –Eggplant Parmigiana! Yay!
In a small sauce-pot I heated about 1 tablespoon of olive oil chopped up two garlic cloves and poured two large cans of crushed tomato sauce, added salt, 2 large pinches ½ of a teaspoon of black pepper and 2 or three pinches of dried basil…brought that to a boil and simmered for 1 hour and 15 minutes….!
The eggplant was taken out of the freezer and defrosted, once the sauce was done; all I had to do was assemble…I decided to use a glass pie dish; because the only way I can reheat it tomorrow is in a micro-wave…..and with fingers crossed and praying, I did bake it in the Pyrex baking dish for 30 minutes at 350 degrees!!!! Whew it looks good!
Eggplant Parmigiana is easy to make, yet it can be time-consuming!.
That is the first layer in assembling.
I take my eggplant and I do rinse them off and wipe them a bit. Then I proceed by slicing them thinly from one end to the other….the ends I discard. By the way, because it is time-consuming I will usually buy and use around 3 to four large ones. Once they are sliced I start to layer them in a strainer, sprinkling sea salt in between each layer. When I cannot fit anymore eggplant slices/discs I take a dish place it on top of the eggplant and then place a heavy object on top of the dish; this is to press out the black liquid from the eggplant. I leave this and go on doing other tasks …. I don’t have a time how long, but 30 minutes should be enough. I do rinse the eggplants and then pat dry with paper towels.
These are quite thick; I was using these to fry, in breadcrumbs for a different recipe but the same procedure still applies, the black liquid needs to be drawn out.
Next step is frying these babies! In a plate/bowl take two or three eggs (depending on the amount of slices you have) season with black pepper, salt, and a little bit of milk, beat well. In a shallow plate pour some flour, again, depending on the amount of slices you have, you need to be the judge… I do season the flour with salt and pepper, not a lot, a small pinch of each. Dredge your eggplant slices in the egg and then the flour.
Fry the eggplant in vegetable oil for less then two minutes on each side then place eggplant on paper towels to absorb excess oil. That is it! When I do this after they are cooled off, I store them in freezer bags and freeze. As long as I have sauce made and mozzarella cheese in the fridge, during the week we have a simple meal ….all we have to do is assemble, and if the sauce was cooked prior there is no need to heat that up either.
To assemble Eggplant Parmigiana; add tomato sauce at the bottom of the baking pan, place 1st layer of eggplant on top of the sauce, spoon sauce on top the eggplant, add the shredded mozzarella cheese, place sliced eggplant on top followed by more sauce, then mozzarella cheese. Repeat… eggplant, sauce, cheese, last layer is sauce then cheese. Preheat oven to 350, add eggplant parmigiana and let it bake for 3o minutes. My oven was set for Convection Bake at 350 degrees.
Mangia, Mangia …No Talk!!!
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My intent for Mangia Mangia …No talk is to get everyone back to the table and enjoy the quintessential act of breaking bread with your family and friends; enjoying a simple meal…and I do mean simple because even though the food is delicious I know that every single time that I eat an artichoke I am back in my kitchen in Brooklyn, at 3 in the morning, twenty-something years ago, eating artichokes with friends that I miss with all my heart. 
