From GastroLab with Love: Parmigiana di Melanzani con Sugo alla Puttanesca/Eggplant parmesan with whore sauce (quasi-vegetarian)

I have always told people that I don’t like to go out for Italian food.  Going to a semi-decent Italian restaurant always seems like getting whacked in the kneecaps by the Italian mafia-- where a dollar worth of pasta and 50 cents worth of tomato-sauce-from-a-can can somehow be marked up by 1000% (excluding the tax and tip, of course).  With the exception of pizza (which I have to say, a good pizza is hard to replicate at home because most home ovens would never get as hot as the pizza oven at a real pizza joint, but it can come close), it certainly seems that I can deliver the same punch for way less at home.  Here I present to you one of the many reasons why I do not like to go to an Italian restaurant when I eat out.  

Italians, being passionate, creative people, have some interesting names when it comes to food (see “pick me up”), but none tops spaghetti alla puttanesca--“whore’s style spaghetti.”  I have never tasted a “whore”, but I would think this comes really close-- it’s salty, it’s spicy, it’s a hair “bitter”, it has a nice twang and an almost-meaty flavor, much like a good hour with a quality working girl.  Since the sauce has such a complex flavor profile, I have always wondered how it would work with eggplants, which also have a little bit of bitter in them. Parmigiana di melanzane (or Eggplant Parmesan), another famous Italian dish with fried eggplants, cheese, and tomato sauce, seems like a good foundation to test my hypothesis.  Time to strut my way to my research lab!  

When I have eggplant Parmesan (at “Italian restaurants”), they are usually very greasy on both the outside (from baking sub-par cheese), and the inside (from eggplants’ and bread crumbs’ amazing ability to absorb frying oil).  Biting into a sponge of rancid oils is not exactly my kind of good eats-- hence I make it my mission to find a recipe that does NOT require frying.  After some searching, Iron Chef Batali comes through with this:  a bake, almost lasagna version of eggplant Parmigiana.  Replacing that tomato sauce with sugo alla puttanesca (recipe here) would put us on the right foot forward (and left foot backwards of course, for the best hit).  

Below lists our team players:  

For the Parmigiana part of the dish
5 medium Japanese eggplants (or more, if you like thicker eggplant slices)
¾ lb fresh mozzarella cheese
Freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
½ a bunch of spinach (optional)
Handful of black olives (optional.  I believe the type I used was Thete olives-- it’s a dry, wrinkly olive from Whole foods...  will update when I double check)  
Dried parsley
A handful of rolled oats
Extra virgin olive oil, for lubrication and drizzling
Sprinkles of sea salt (or coarse salt) and freshly ground black pepper

For the Puttanesca sauce
600 - 700 g crushed tomatoes (I used a 28 oz can crushed tomatoes, but not all of it)
3 anchovies (that’s what I got in my pantry, but original recipe asks for 4)
Handful of black olives, same type as the Parmigiana dish (NOT optional)
3 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon caper
2-3 small dried chili pepper
Splash of extra virgin olive oil, for saute

I decide to use Japanese eggplant instead of regular eggplant.  I have never really liked the fat, rotund eggplants at the mega marts because the skin on those eggplants is too tough-- and in my opinion, eggplant’s skin carries a bit of eggplant’s distinctive flavor (not to mention, the beautiful, aubergine color).  The only ways you can eat those eggplants are either take the skin off, or grill them to the crispy point, neither of which would work in this application (and I haven’t even started talking about the seeds when them eggplants get real old....)  In contrast, Japanese eggplants’ skin are edible most of the time, and they don’t usually have the big-seeds problem like their cousins would unless they turn 100 in fruit years.  The other change is to use rolled oats instead of bread crumbs.  This is mostly ingenuity at work-- I happened to run out of panko bread crumbs (which I prefer over regular bread crumbs because they have better texture), and rolled oats can be a good crunchy alternative for breading applications sometimes.  

To increase the health quotient (and to use up my groceries), I threw in the spinach.  The olives would give each bite a “hey, there’s something else here” flavor to the dish.  Both of these ingredients are optional, and I would definitely not go overboard as both has very strong flavors.  The goal is to make the aubergine escort shine, not to turn her into a Christmas tree with Chinese New Year decorations on it.  

First, I roasted the eggplant in the oven at 450F.  I grabbed a baking sheet, lube it up, and laid ¼” to ½” longitudinally cut eggplant slices onto it.  After laying them down, I drizzled some olive oil, sprinkled the salt and pepper on top, and popped the tray into the oven.  

Meanwhile, I started making the sauce.  First I crushed the anchovies into a paste.

Then I get all the other ingredients together... for a group shot!  

Now the finely chopped garlic, olive, and capers mingle with the mashed up anchovies.  

I turned the heat to medium-high, threw in some olive oil, and in goes the anchovies mixtures.  I kept on moving the mixture around until I smelled caramelized anchovies.  

In goes the crushed tomatoes and stirring...  Then I put a mesh lid on (anti-splash when bubbling) and let it simmer, stirring occasionally.  

30 minutes later, eggplants are now charred and cooked.  

Some things I learned from this experience:  1.  Lube the pan liberally!  Not enough lubing causes sticking, burn, and pain, just like in real life;  2.  Flip the eggplant for better browning.  On the same line, if you have multiple tray on different levels, make sure you flip their position!  I was watching the eggplant slices very carefully so my damages were mostly under control, but this can end very badly.  Another tip is that the eggplants must be as dry as possible...  I’ll explain why in a moment because the whore finally got her fishnets on and IS READY!  

Took her 20 - 30 minutes... not so shabby huh?  The simmering allows the flavors mingle and concentrate the sauce...  more on why in a moment.  

While everything was cooking, time to prep the spinach, fresh mozz, and the remaining olives.  First, another family photo...

I chopped off the stems on the spinach, chopped the olives into big chunks, and the mozz into ~ ¼” slices.  The spinach stems got the finely diced treatment, and along with the spinach leaves, cooked in the microwave until wilted, about 1 minute.  I rung out as much water as possible in the spinach...  again, more on why in a minute....  (this minute is getting really really long...)  Here’s a shot of the spinach.

Now, time to build the eggplant parmigiana.  First, lube up the baking dish with extra virgin olive oil.  Then, place a layer of the roasted eggplant onto the baking dish.

I then threw in some spinach and olives....

Now in goes the sliced fresh mozzarella...  

Last item on this layer:  the Puttanesca sauce....  

Next layer would be a repeat:  a layer of eggplant....  

Spinach, olives....

Mozzarella cheese and a newcomer:  Parmigiano-Reggiano.  I forgot to add the Parm in the last layer, so I shaved in extra in this layer (and the next one) to compensate.  

Then the sauce!   I think the whore would really like this sandwiched position, don’t you think?  

One more layer of eggplant, spinach, olives...

Mozzarella, Parm...

The last of the sauce!   I sprinkled some dried parsley on this layer.  

No bread crumbs so rolled oats would have to do....

I then popped this into a 350F oven for another ~30 minutes.  The original protocol asked for 15 - 20 min, or until the cheeses melted, I checked it frequently after the 15 minutes mark, but I liked mine a little more charred on top so I left it in for longer.  It would be up to you.  This is what it looked like after it came out from the oven.  

Remember:  the longer the cooking time, the more crunchy the top will be, and the spinach would probably turn more ashen-yellow.  The last part probably doesn’t matter because it would be all embedded into tomato sauce so you likely won’t see it.  

I let it rest for 5 minutes before cutting in.  Here’s a cut-up sliced shot:  

Noticed that the dish is dry:  there is no liquid running on the dish or the plate!  Remember I insisted that the eggplants and spinach must be dry, and the sauce should be concentrated?  This is where it pays off.  Both the eggplants and spinach contain a lot of water, which make them turgid when they are fresh (and that is a tell-tale sign of freshness on most veggies-- a wrinkly, wilted fruits or greens means water has evaporated and the item in question had been sitting around for a while).  When heated, the cell walls in the eggplant and spinach would break, leaking out all the water it retained while it was still alive.  In addition, the pressure applied with the stacking structure would further increase the water leakage.  If you do not roast the eggplant until a lot of the water is evaporated, or not ring out the spinach when finished cooking, all this water would end up in the final dish...  Definitely not good eats.  Sauce, also containing lots of water by nature, would worsen the situation.  By concentrating the sauce, you have paid additional “protection money”-- when the eggplant or spinach are oozing out water (it doesn’t matter how much you dry the food; it will still have some leftover.  Even dried pasta you get at the store aren’t exactly bone-dry-- too little moisture would cause the pasta to crumble into dust), the sauce will absorb some of those liquids and thin out.  The sauce will then in turn baste the eggplants and spinach, mingling all the great flavors.

Hopefully this will convince you to make your own Italian food at home and give the mafia Italian restaurant a boot.  Bon appetit!

Note:  

In my humble opinion, the whore sauce is not a whore sauce without anchovies.  Anchovies have a complex flavor profile that gives the sauce this seductive, pull-your-soul-in quality.  If you don’t like anchovies, here are your options:  

1.  Use less of it!  You won’t taste the fishiness in the sauce because it has so much going on.  If you can’t do 3, add 2.  If you can’t do 2, add 1.  Life is too short to be picky!  

2.  If you absolutely cannot stand anchovies, you can skip it.  The Neapolitan version of the Puttanesca sauce does not contain anchovies and it is still a puttanesca sauce, but it’s really not the same.  

Other words of cautions:  

3.  I do not recommend turning this dish into a meatatarian dish as the puttanesca sauce already has enough body (haha, get it? body...) to carry this dish.  Adding meat would not necessarily ruin the dish, but you would lose the opportunity to experience the whore in an aubergine environment.  

4.  If you would eat this as a leftover dish (and I think you can and should...  the flavors do not degrade over many nights, just like you would not forget a great night with a great courtesan for years to come...) and go with the oat option, be mindful that the oats will absorb some of the liquids and gelatinize.  That should not be a problem, and it may be an added bonus from keeping the food dry... if you count that as an added bonus.  

5.  Speaking of leftovers, the best way to reheat this is microwave slightly first then put it under the broiler for a couple minutes to get the top crunchy again, but I understand that can create more pain and frustrations if you’re really hungry (and you would absolutely be frustrated because no one can resist the smell of a good whore.)