Eggplant Parmigiana Has Never Been This Good!

Hello Foodies!

Flamboyant Tuscan chef Fabio Picchi cooks up his own version of one of the most popular Sicilian (according to me) dishes -- Melanzane or Melenzane alla Parmigiana (original name is Palmigiana) translated to eggplant parmigiana.

A few years ago, Patricia Wells of the International Herald Tribune, ranked Fabio Picchi's Cibrèo restaurant in Florence as # 8 in her personal list of best restaurants in the world. Cookbook author and Gourmet Magazine contributor Faith Willinger defines Cibrèo as her favorite restaurant in Italy. In October 2004, Bruce Schoenfeld wrote in Wine Spectator that Fabio Picchi is the best cook in the world when it comes to trippa (tripe).

While his background is Tuscan, Fabio is known for his takes on traditional dishes from other regions of Italy. In the case of eggplant parmigiana, we think (and we are not the only ones), the results will surprise you.

The recipe:

• After washing and cutting the eggplants, I suggest soaking them in salt water for a couple of hours (as per my late grandmother's recipe this will get rid of the eggplant's bitter taste).

• Separately, prepare the tomato sauce (tomato purée, onions, olive oil, salt).

• Re-wash and dry the eggplant slices, then fry them in sunflower seed oil or soy oil. After frying, use paper towels to absorb excess oil from the eggplant then add salt.

• When the tomato sauce is ready, take a baking pan, put olive oil and/or oven paper at its bottom and start layering the eggplant then cover them with tomato sauce.

• Until this point, this is the traditional recipe, but now things start to change. Fabio's next step is to add pieces of mozzarella fiordilatte cheese. This for many in Northern Italy and in the U.S. would be a standard step, but for me is not. Growing up in Palermo, my mother, grandmothers, and aunts never used mozzarella for melenzane alla parmigiana. They just grated Parmesan cheese.

• Anyway, after the next layer of eggplant is added, Fabio's recipe calls for a layer of slices of boiled potatoes, in his words "to go back to the Turkish and Greek origins of this dish."
  

• Next, a layer of smoked provolone cheese, and finally a layer of freshly prepared bechamel sauce with a lot of Parmesan cheese in it. Now, for many this is unheard of! But we continue with a final layer of tomato sauce and put it then into the oven at 350 degrees for half an hour.

You will find the result surprisingly good. We tried it and we really liked it. As I mentioned earlier, we were not the only ones. Fabio himself has reported that the first time he tried this at home, his son (which he claims to be very difficult to please) said, "Bravo papa, dovresti fare il cuoco." (Well done dad, you should become a chef.). The rest is history...

Ciao and enjoy!

Giuseppe