Eggplant Parm

[Italiancook]

I offer this post as a public service that may save someone else time.

Not too long ago, I spent 9 hours making Eggplant Parmesan. One day, I spent 6 hours making the sauce. Next day, I spent 3 hours preparing and assembling the eggplant. By the time the food had cooked, I was sick of it and couldn't eat it. I understood why I'd made Eggplant Parm only one other time, decades ago.

While the sauce was cooking, I searched the Internet to see how others make Eggplant Parm. Martha Stewart's recipe called for baking the eggplant to brown it, instead of doing it on stovetop. Her recipe took about 50 minutes, total, including flipping the eggplant slices mid-way.

I decided I didn't want to spend 50 minutes. I used the stovetop, instead. I didn't time it, but my feet felt like it took me much more than 50 minutes. In retrospect, I'd much rather be sitting in an easy chair for 50 minutes than standing.

I may have made more work for myself in another way. Even though I've heard Ina Garten say you don't need to salt the eggplant as a prep stage, and even though Martha's recipe doesn't pre-salt the eggplant, I did so. I cut the eggplant in half, salted it, let it set for 30 minutes before wiping off the salt and moisture and slicing it. In retrospect, I wonder if that's really necessary. Now, I'm inclined to think it is not, since two celebrity cooks I admire don't do it.

My husband liked the Eggplant Parm. After I recovered from the ordeal of making it, I was able to eat one serving of it. I agreed with hubby, but I doubt I'll ever make it again unless I have sauce in the freezer and don't need to make it fresh. If I do, I'll bake the eggplant slices.

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[Mike Nolan]

Eggplant that hasn't been sweated tends to get really soft and gooey, and just seems texturally unappetizing to me. I've made ratatouille a number of times, it also seems like a lot of work but at least it freezes well.

When I make marinara sauce I usually make 6-8 quarts of it and freeze most of it. But recently I've discovered that Hunts Traditional Pasta Sauce is garlic-free and makes a decent sauce for most dishes. The last time I made pizza I just used a light coating of tomato sauce. (Sam's Club's tomato sauce is one of the few tomato sauces that is garlic-free, we've discovered.)

Tomato-based dishes all seem to be pretty high in carbs (starting with the tomatoes themselves), so they're not something we make as often as we used to.

I think the dish that I invested the most time in with the least return was the time I made turducken for Christmas. Deboning the duck took the most time, but assembly was a close second. But then several of us came down with some kind of flu on Christmas morning and, though I cooked the turducken anyway, most of us just picked at it.

[BakerAunt]

I've never cooked eggplant--and my husband says not to start!

Italian Cook--it's good to hear from you again. 🙂

[aaronatthedoublef]

Never trusted Martha. Her recipes never seem to work for me. Plus if you ever saw her Food Network Halloween special the kids were absolutely terrified of her even though she was trying to give them treats. Makes me wonder what they saw off-camera.

I love Ina Garten but I've never tried any of her recipes. Going back to my cooking class in Italy I would probably sweat the eggplant. But you can make a tasty tomato sauce in 10 minutes. Olive oil, salt, garlic (or no garlic), onions, perhaps some carrots, and crushed tomatoes. Do it in a skillet and it will thicken in about 10 minutes. You can add some sugar to tame the acid or you can add about a teaspoon of baking soda. But I've found I need to up the salt a bit when adding baking soda or it tastes flat.

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