Melanzane alla Parmigiana

Melanzane alla Parmigiana anyone? How can you resist the layers of aubergine, tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmesan and basil.

A southern Italian dish, typical of Naples and Sicily. I love making this dish as its really easy to put together but more importantly it’s really delicious 😋

Mangia, mangia! 👩🏻‍🍳

Melanzane alla Parmigiana recipe:

1 large aubergine sliced
100-150g mozzarella sliced
50g parmesan

Tomato sauce:

1 tin of plum or chopped tomatoes (400g)
2 cloves of garlic thinly sliced
Squeeze of tomato purée
2 tbsps of olive oil
Pinch of red chilli flakes (optional)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
Handful of basil leaves sliced

Serves 2-3

1. Prepare the tomato sauce - add oil, garlic and crushed pepper flakes in a cold pan and over a medium heat stir for a minute or two. Add the tomatoes, stir, then add the salt and sugar. Cook for about 15 mins stirring occasionally on a low/medium heat. Taste and add more salt if needed and stir in the sliced basil then set aside.

2. Whilst the tomato sauce is cooking, slice the aubergine into rounds and sprinkle lightly with salt then fry the aubergine slices in vegetable oil until golden. Place them on a plate lined with kitchen paper.

3. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan.

4. To assemble put a scoop of tomato sauce at the bottom of an ovenproof dish (about 24cm x 14cm) top with a layer of fried aubergine, tomato sauce, grated cheese and sliced mozzarella. Then repeat the layers until you run out of aubergine. Finish the top layer with the tomato sauce and grated cheese. Note - mine made about 2 layers.

5. Cook for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

6. Serve on its own or with a salad.