For some reason, we had two. I don't normally keep eggplants, so it's odd. Antica Posta has the most amazingly awesome eggplant parm. It's served in a little crock that comes hot from the oven and when you look at it, it looks so small. But the portion inside, the intense layering and richness... it really is a good size. It is so damn good.
I had been looking for a recipe that turned out similarly, but luck was not with me. So when I set out to start, I decided to improvise my own.
Josh had invited Adam over for the eggplant parm so I knew I had to finally 1) make it and 2) keep it meatless. No problem.
I started off by putting the cannelini beans on to cook. Okay, these are great white northern beans. I have no idea what the difference is. These beans are notoriously long-cooking but perhaps it's because they take longer to cook with age and normally my beans are kind of ... old. I'm trying to be better about it. Anyway, if you watch beans cook, they take like 10x longer. These cooked up decently.
I had cooked them with a couple smashed garlic cloves and half a rosemary stem from the bag I have in the freezer. When I tasted them, the rosemary was very strong. I took out the stem. I left them hanging out in their cooking water to cool.
Before serving, I brought them back to a simmer, then used a slotted spoon to pull out the beans. I salted it lighted and mixed that in, then topped with my newest Arbequina evoo. I actually ended up topping each portion with evoo to make it better.
Next, I worked on my sauce. I put a rather large carrot, 2 pretty large onions, and all of the remaining celery (which probably amounted to 3-3 1/2 stalks) along with 3 garlic cloves into the food processor. Process. Then I sauteed that on high heat, stirring so it would cook evenly.
Actually, I originally had used less onion and celery, but the mixture had turned out very very orange. I've made an over-carroty sauce before and I hated it. That was when I came back to add more celery and onion but the celery was nearly white so figured that was part of it.
Then I chopped up a good handful of parsley and added that to the sauteing mixture.
Meanwhile, I took out a kind of old can of tomatoes from when I was trying out tomatoes and one of my newer Nina cans (2 28 oz cans total) and ran those through the food mill. In it all went. I set the heat so it was just at a very low simmer and let it go.
After a few hours (or less, who knows?) I checked on it and it had thickened up nicely with a good flavor. How easy. I turned off the heat.
(If you are wondering, the sauce turned out superbly.)
What is eggplant parm without the eggplant? I had peeled it and sliced it thinly. Then I salted each piece and put it into a colander over the sink. I tried to eyeball about 1/2 hr for the salting, but I really have no idea how long it took.
I took each piece and rinsed it, then placed all the rounds on paper towels to dry. Here you see that I had several layers of drying eggplant.
I'm not really a fan of egging/dredging my eggplant, plus I didn't have enough breadcrumbs. And, I was thinking of the eggplant texture from Antica Posta. So I just put a non-stick skillet on the stove. I used a lot of olive oil but put all the eggplants on more paper towels to soak up the extra oil. Normally I think that eggplant can turn out greasy, but I think it turned out well.
I had also bought some fresh mozzarella balls for the parm. I did sneak some slices topped with kosher salt for me -- chef's treat. When I was little, my NY Italian godparents used to buy mozzarella in water at Waldbaum's. I have to admit that when eating it plain, I still prefer the cow's milk version.
I put the parmigiana together starting with a layer of sauce on the bottom, then eggplant, then a lot of grated parmigiano reggiano. Then eggplant. Then parmigano. Then eggplant. Then sauce. Then eggplant, then parmigiano, then eggplant, then sauce. Then cheese.
Then into the oven at 350 for 20 minutes. I think. Then I put it into the toaster oven to broil so it would brown. The broiler in my oven sucks, Anyway, it came out looking just as I wanted it to. I took it out to the table and let it rest while I put the rest of dinner on plates.
In addition to the cannelini beans and eggplant parmigiana, I had a few other (starchy) things to go.
After I put the parm into the oven, I turned back on the sauce and beans so they would be serving temp.
I rustled up a pot of spaghetti -- which I am stealing as a serving idea from Ippolito's, where I like to lunch with the boys. I rinsed it after cooking which I know is kind of blasphemy, but I wanted it to be a serve-your-own. I also brought out a bowl of sauce to the table (with a Chinese spoon for serving, ha!) for those who wanted it. It was good to have the spaghetti since it turned out that the eggplant retained much of the salt. It was a salty dish.
I also made some garlic bread which took a "baguette" Josh picked up at Publix which was not baguette-looking at all. Nevertheless, it had a good crackle when I cut into it. I had pulled the Plugra out of the fridge so it would come to room temp and be spreadable but you know, it never really softens. So I really just sliced the Plugra and laid it on the bread. Then I sprinkled it with granulated garlic and then kosher salt. Into the toaster then slice.
Lastly, a salad. I took one of the heads of CSA lettuce (the bibb one maybe?). I had washed and spun it before hand and also made a big batch of vinaigretta. Just garlic, no shallots in this one, since my vinaigrette jars are wee. I went 1:3 champagne vinegar to Arbequina olive oil. Oh fine, I also used the last of the Argentinean evoo also. I did a lot of finishing up today.
I mixed up the lettuce at the end and also tossed in a bunch of halved CSA cherry tomatoes.
It was a pretty good meal and I ate too much. We finished just about everything which is impressive. Yum.
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