Eggplant Parmesan

[FlyinBrian]

Growing up, I spent lots of time with my family in Brooklyn, NY near Sunset Park.  My uncle and his wife lived in the apartment on the top floor and the rest of the house was occupied by my grand parents.  I would get up in the morning and go down stairs.  Before I could get the sleep out of my eyes my grandmother would ask "what do you want for dinner?"  Once that matter was settled she'd ask about breakfast.  My Sicilian grandmother cooked Italian food practically everyday of her life.  She was the source of my passion for food.  At an early age I was just interested in tasting everything.  As I grew up I began to help making marinara sauce and/or "gravy", ravioli, braciole, and stuffed calamari aka "gallammod".  I later graduated to what has become my signature Italian dish,  Eggplant Parmesan.

One of my wife's close friends is pregnant and mentioned planing a trip to Scalini's or some other local place.  My wife immediately volunteered my services.  This is normally a dish suited for colder weather but the eggplants look so good right now, I couldn't resist.  (My Grandma taught me how to pick the less-seedy ones.)  So tonight I will be cooking, sipping wine and reminiscing about my beloved Italian Grandma, Carmelina.

Bon Appetito!

[Minerva]

This is a dish I'm very fond of, so I hope you'll share your recipe, including the gravy!

[FlyinBrian]

A recipe?  I guess someone should do it.  Grandma Millie cooked by taste and never measured anything, unless she was baking.  I'll record our efforts tonight.

-B

[LamarT]

Nice. The wonderful great delicious thing about eggplant, besides being eggplant, is that the more you cook it the better it gets.
We used to make an eggplant caviar in Mendocino that took 10 days of olive oil, press, drain, chill, olive oil, press, drain, chill before
it reached peak perfection. And eggplant is transcontinental which makes it even better since there are recipes from India, Thailand and Japan on over to Italy and islands up into France. Cooking eggplant tonight. Made a very nice Indian style last week by slicing paper thin
and dusting with dried beefsteak and brown rice flour and cooking in clarified butter.
Sicilian style though has to be one of the best ways of preparing it for Western palate though. Lots of fresh grated parmesan, just lots and lots all oozing into the eggplant meat. Please share the recipe. Is it like the ones in Silver Spoon cookbook?