Eggplant Parmesan

When I was in Greece over a decade ago, I had this delicious version of Eggplant Parmesan that resembled nothing of the Italian casserole dish of the same name, but oh was it delicious.

Eggplant Parmesan

Serve 4 appetizer portions

1 large or medium eggplant

1 - 1.5 cups of fresh tomato sauce (or any good tomato sauce is a decent substitute)

Olive Oil

Parmesan and Provolone or Mozzarella

This recipe is not elaborate and it is too simple to require elaboration.

Slice the eggplant thinly and sprinkle liberally with salt.  In a couple of hours most of the liquid will have drained from the slices.  Squeeze out the remaining liquid and then rinse the slices under cold water to remove the excess salt.  Squeeze out as much as the remaining liquid as you can and you should be left with a couple of fistfuls of eggplant flesh.  Disentangle them as best as you are able, although it's alright if they're still clumped.

Toss them into a hot pan with olive oil and toss or stir them constantly until they're browning.  There is no need to fully brown the eggplant slices on each side, you expect them to be clumped.  The key is to achieve a  good enough carmelization to add a certain richness of flavour that eggplant achieves when browned.

Evenly divide the cooked eggplant into 4 ramekins.  Spoon enough tomato to almost cover the eggplant.  Cover with cheese and broil until the cheese is bubbled and brown.