EGGPLANT
PARMESAN
CASSEROLE
If you had asked the fourteen-year-old me what my three
least favorite things in the world were, I would have
answered, “My sister,§ § She-Ra, and eggplant.” But I
would have rather sat through a She-Ra marathon with
my sister than be forced to down a bite of the slimy, bitter
vegetable. Later on down the line, though, I realized that
it’s not eggplant itself that’s horrible, it was more just
that my mom didn’t really know how to cook it (sorry,
Mom)—and she’s not the only one.
Indeed, most of the ingredients in eggplant Parmesan
are tough to mess up. And I’m not talking the traditional
Sicilian style where unbreaded slices of eggplant are deep-
fried in olive oil and delicately layered with tomatoes and
mozzarella—I’m talking the all-American version. The
kind where meaty slabs of eggplant are breaded and fried
before being layered in a casserole dish with a cooked
tomato sauce loaded with mozzarella and Parmesan
cheese. The best bites of the dish are the parts where the
fried breading soaks up the sweet tomato sauce and swells
in between the layers of meaty eggplant and gooey cheese.
Tomato sauce? No problem (see here). Gooey