Eggplant Parmesan aka Eggplant Parmigiana (Vegetarian) - Recipe

Mini-Me's best friend and his entourage came over tonight. We all usually have at least one weekend meal together. His Dad MG is an outstanding cook and made urban-foraged berry cobbler with a cornmeal top, vanilla-honey frozen yogurt, the salad, and the sauce for the cappellini, and took all the pictures for today's post. I made the eggplant parmesan you see above. (Best-Friend's Mom is the Jen you see in the comments many days. Don't worry about the sumac from a couple posts ago, she's just giving me a hard time). We forgot to snap the final dish til after we'd begun disassembling for alimentary delivery, but you get the general idea.

I basically followed the method from Marcella Hazan's seminal Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, with a couple of differences. She doesn't bread the eggplant, only dredge it in flour, where I really wanted a panko crust, and I like to serve it with a dice of fresh heirloom tomatoes and basil on top. I couldn't get her method of salting eggplant stacked vertically to work right, so I just went ahead and layed them down and weighted them like I always do. The consensus seemed to be that that the dish turned out well, with a lot of tender bite from the eggplant, delicious melty cheese, tang from the tomatoes and the high note of the basil. It was also damn fine cold for breakfast this morning.

In the picture to the right you can see the dredging stations - flour, egg, and panko, and my trusty cast iron skillet, where probably 70% of my meals take a turn. Kindly forgive the dorky grin. Here's the approximate recipe. I didn't measure anything, but this should get you in the ballpark where you can use your own kitchen common sense.

Eggplant Parmesan (or Eggplant Parmigiana)
Serves 6 as a main course

3 large or 5 smaller globe eggplant, about 4 pounds total
kosher salt
2 c. canned crushed Italian tomatoes (San Marzano preferred)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. olive oil
1 c. flour
4 eggs, beaten
3 c. panko or other good breadcrumbs
3/4 lb. fresh mozzarella sliced thin
handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped
1 c. fresh grated parmesan cheese
1.5 c. diced heirloom tomatoes

Peel eggplant and slice lengthwise in 3/8" thick planks. Layer in a colander with a heavy sprinkling of kosher salt in each layer, top with a plate and weight with some cans, and let drain for at least 30 minutes. Wipe off excess salt with a paper towel. I don't salt eggplant for every use but in this case it is worth the extra effort to get that liquid out so it doesn't weep in the oven.
Make a quick tomato sauce by sauteing the garlic in the olive oil and adding the diced tomatoes, and reducing a bit while you make the rest of the recipe. Don't add salt because the eggplant will still have residual salt from the draining process.
Set up for dredging, with plates for the flour and panko, and a shallow bowl for the egg. Also, get a rack or sheet pan covered with paper towel to receive the booty. Get out and butter a large baking dish and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Put a good 1/4" of vegetable oil (not olive oil, it will smoke too much) in your biggest skillet and and heat on high. Working with two slices of eggplant at a time, pat them in the flour until they have a dry coating, then drag through the egg, and finally press both sides in the panko, covering thoroughly. Place them in the skillet, where they should start sizzling immediately. Fill the skillet loosely, leaving yourself some room to work. Flip when brown, maybe 2 minutes, then remove to the paper towels when brown on the other side. They should be tender to a fork at this point, because the oven baking is just to melt the cheese, not cook the eggplant.
To assemble, lay down your first layer of eggplant, and top each slice with a couple tablespoons of tomato sauce, a piece of mozarella, a bit of parmesan, and a bit of basil . Build up three layers using all of the ingredients and finishing with cheese.
Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, until the cheese it thoroughly melted.
To serve, put a healthy stack on each plate, and top with about 1/4 cup of the diced heirloom tomatoes, any remaining basil, and a grind of fresh pepper.