Eggplant Parmigiana

Today's post is going to be a continuation of the last post, which was a Vegetarian Dinner Menu. What I love best about this menu is that between the eggplant and the vast amount of cheese consumed, you don't really miss meat (for the duration of the meal, anyway).

If I need to use stock cubes, I like to use Massel ones as they don't contain any animal products - this makes them suitable for cooking for vegetarians (they do Vegetable, Chicken Style and Beef Style). I'll admit I'm lazy when it comes to this sort of thing - making stock to keep for later use is too much work, plus I don't have much freezer space.

This recipe is also low-fuss, so I don't bother grilling the eggplant first (it takes too long).

This serves 4 as a main.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium-sized eggplants, sliced lengthways (1 cm thick)
• 2 x 400g cans of canned chopped tomatoes
• 1 Massel 'Chicken Style' stock cube
• 1 large onion, diced'
• 2 cloves garlic, very finely diced (or 2/3 tbsp of garlic paste)
• 1.5 tbsps oregano
• 1.5 tbsps basil
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 200g Bocconcini, thinly sliced
• 100g Mozzarella, thickly grated
• 75g Parmesan, finely grated
• 50g cheddar (optional)
• Salt

1. Rinse the eggplant and shake so most of the water is gone but the pieces are still moist. Sprinkle with salt and set aside. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.
2. Heat a saucepan over medium heat. Add the oil and butter. When very liquid, add the onion and garlic and sauté until translucent. Add the tomatoes, oregano and basil. Stir to combine.
3. Add 1/4 cup of water and the stock cube to the saucepan and stir until dissolved. Increase the heat and stir the sauce for 5 minutes or until it is slightly reduced.
4. Rinse the eggplant and dry with paper towels. Get a large overproof dish. Spread a thin layer of the sauce over the bottom. Top with a single layer of eggplant. Cover this with some sauce and a handful of bocconcini pieces. Repeat until dish is full; sauce and bocconcini is used up.
5. Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove (using oven mitts) and top with the combined mozzarella and parmesan. Return to oven and cook for a further 10-15 minutes or until cheese is golden, melted and slightly browned. Serve.

You will probably need to use a spatula or slice to cut the parmigiana for serving.

Ideas:

• Feel free to increase the cheese content (I like adding gruyere and cheddar)
• Add baby spinach or finely diced mushrooms to the sauce
• If you're missing meat, add some finely diced bacon to the sauce
• Experiment with the herbs
• Try playing around with the way the eggplant is cut and added - you could almost make this ratatouille-like and still retain the core flavours