Fried Eggplant with Parmesan Cheese
An appetizing way to serve this versatile vegetable and a practical solution for picnics and brunches.
Directions
Cut the eggplant in discs 1/3 inch thick
Lay them down on a wooden board
Sprinkle with salt (more than you would normally use)
Let them rest for a couple of hours
Shell the egg in a bowl and stir it to make it creamy
Lay the flour on a wide dish
Dry the eggplant slices with paper towels to remove the liquid they produced
Pour the oil in a wide pan and heat it
Immerse the eggplant slices in the egg and, secondly, in the flour
Put some of the floured slices in the hot oil without overlapping them
Cook them until they are brownish, then turn them around and cook them on the other side
When they are brownish on both sides, pull them out of the oil with a skimmer and lay them on a dish covered with paper towels, to absorb the oil in excess
If you have salted them and let them rest before, they should be already properly salted, otherwise sprinkle with salt
Dry them with paper towels also on the top and sprinkle with abundant parmesan cheese
Repeat the frying procedure until the slices are over
Additional Notes
The reason for the first part of the process is the following: eggplants – like other vegetables of the same family (Solanaceae), such as tomatoes, peppers and potatoes – contain a substance called solanine, which is naturally blandly toxic.
In eggplants, this substance can be removed with the process described above: the liquid the eggplants release after having rested salted for a while contains in fact the solanine, that you wipe out.
This way, the eggplants lose their typical bitter after-taste and their limited toxicity, that could however create allergy problems.
And they taste sweeter, in any case
