Eggplant Parmesan, Parmigianna di Melanzane

Eggplant parmesan is the ancestor of many dishes including chicken parmesan. Like its descendants chicken and veal parmesan, eggplant parmesan is a standard of the tradition red sauce Italian American restaurant. I would venture to say that the parmesan family of dishes is among the most requested in traditional Italian American restaurants: a favorite of Italians and non-Italians alike.

In these venues, the dish is usually something of a pool of red sauce with either the eggplant or the chicken or the veal hidden somewhere beneath an elastic covering of mozzarella. The thing I have found curious about this dish is that it has nothing to do with parmesan cheese or with the city of Parma. My curiosity led me to do a bit of research on this recipe and the results were most edifying.

The first printed version of the dish appears in Vincenzo Corrado’s “Il Cuoco Gallante,” Naples, 1786. But this version does not use tomatoes, but only butter and spices.
The version we know today is first in print by Ippolito de Calvalcante’s ,”Cucina teorico-pratica”, Naples, 1837. The exact origin and meaning of the name of this dish is lost in history. What can be established however, is that the original dish is based on eggplant.

While if we follow most Italian recipes, and if we ascribe to the history of the dish as a “shutter slats” then you would slice the eggplant along its broad side and set up the dish in a casserole form in a baking pan, just as you would the related “moussaka.” In our house, however, my mother always cut the eggplant in rings and stacked them in a little tower. My mother added another touch. She would usually stir the sauce into ground beef for between the layers.

I found this Italian website that shows the “shutter” version and the stacked version.

http://www.dissapore.com/grande-notizia/la-ricetta-perfetta-parmigiana-di-melanzane-napoletana/

The video below is from Google SA, it's all images.
بَاذِنْجَان

It is also notable that almost every American recipe for eggplant parmesan indicates dipping the floured and egged slices into breadcrumbs before frying. In all the Italian recipes I found, there are no breadcrumbs. The slices go into the flour and the beaten egg only. The slices are then fried in deep oil. I find that this method seems to seal the eggplant slices and prevents the slices from being saturated with oil: a much better method than shallow frying with breaded slices that absorb the oil.

Other sources suggest that the word parmesan derives from the Sicilian word “palmigiana,” “slatted shutters” and suggests the layered slices of the eggplant.This explanation is all the more plausible when you note that many recipes in Italian are not called “melanzane alla parmigiana” (eggplant parmesan) but “parmigiana di melanzane,” (parmesaned eggplant.) In other words, to “parmesan” something means to set it out in receding layers.

I suppose that one of the big questions when working with eggplant is whether or not you need to salt and drain them. Frankly, I find that if you have young, smaller eggplant in season and without many seeds, the salting and draining are not necessary. If, however, you want to stick to the old ways (as my mother does) see The Food Table, Moussaka.