6-Ingredient Eggplant Parm (Italian-Style Melanzane alla Parmigiana) | Kenji's Cooking Show

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This version of eggplant parm is quite different from the Italian-American version you'll find in my book or on Serious Eats. While the Italian-American version uses breadcrumbs and ends up as more of a sort of juicy but sliceable casserole, the Italian original is a much simpler affair that really highlights two summer vegetables: eggplants and tomatoes.

Some recipes call for a bit of an egg wash, or perhaps a quick dip in flour before you cook the eggplant, but I usually keep it as simple as possible: nothing but sliced eggplant fried in olive oil, layered with crushed tomatoes (I used my quick sauce made from fresh plum tomatoes:    • Easy to Make Red Sauce From Fresh Sum...  ), mozzarella, basil, and parmesan. That's it!

Baked together the flavors meld perfectly with the bitterness of the eggplant and olive oil balanced by the bright sweetness of the tomatoes and the rich dairy backbone of the mozzarella. The texture is creamy and silky with a little pull from the cheese, but it's also got a few crispy bits here and there where the edges of the eggplant crisp up as they fry.

I love both versions of the dish, and if you want, you can find the Italian-American eggplant parmesan recipe in my book The Food Lab, or here on Serious Eats: https://www.seriouseats.com/all-ameri...