Beringela Parmagiana - Eggplant Parmigiana

Beringela is the Portuguese for aubergine. What is aubergine? Well, here in the US it is called eggplant, because in the 18th century some cultivated varieties resembled yellow goose eggs.

The keys to really good eggplant parmigiana are 1) getting the eggplant nice and tender
and then, 2) a tasty sauce.

For the eggplant, bake it first alone on a cookie sheet with a little olive oil until the flesh is pretty soft and browned. There are two tricks here, first, the baking softens and browns the eggplant, and second is that a little olive oil flavors the eqqplant. You've probably noticed before that you can soak eggplant in olive oil and it soaks up a huge amount. So, use that to control the amount of olive oil, and just put in enough to give it a nice flavor but not too much so the dish is too rich. You can do this entirely to your taste.

The sauce used can be the same as my favorite Home Made Pasta Sauce recipe, and you can leave the tomatoes a little chunkier if you want a little more texture. Make a lot of sauce, and then whatever is not used for the eggplant can be saved and used later for a pasta dinner.

Ingredients:
- Eggplants, about 2 medium ones will do
- Use the sauce recipe mentioned above... if you are in a hurry a good jar of sauce will work of course
- hard parmigiana cheese
- breadcrumbs
- oregano (fresh is best)
- Olive oil

Procedure for the eggplant:
- Slice the eggplant into 1cm thick round slices, then slice the rounds in half
- spread out a few tablespoons of olive oil on a cookie sheet and rub both sides of the eggplant in the oil, getting a little on each side. They don't have to be soaked, just covered a bit. Adjust the olive oil to taste - the eggplant will soak this up and you'll be eating it, if you like a lot of olive oil, then use a lot... careful it can get too rich though.
- Bake the eggplant at 375 for about 20-30 minutes until it is dark brown and soft. You can flip it if desired midway.

Assembling & Baking the Eggplant Parmigiana:
- Put a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of a baking dish
- Put a layer of eggplant
- Put a layer of grated parmigiana cheese
- Repeat for at least 3 layers, finish the top with a little sauce and parmigiana cheese
- Toss breadcrumbs in olive oil and some chopped fresh oregano, then spread this on top. If you don't have fresh oregano, use dried oregano sparingly, it can be strong... if you have fresh, use can use alot
- Bake at 375 for 30 minutes, it will be bubbly and brown on top

Variation with mushrooms:

I also like to add cogumelo, which is portuguese for mushroom. The mushrooms I like are Shiitake, because they have a nutty flavor and are very meaty. Any mushrooms would be nice though.

The way to add these is to slice the mushrooms thin and saute them separately until they are cooked pretty well, then layer them along with the sauce and cheese. Very simple addition to this dish that can add another very nice flavor and texture.