Grilled Eggplant with Parmesan
Thin strips of eggplant brush with olive oil, grilled till crisp, then garnished with grated parmesan cheese. Many people say they hate eggplant, but that this is the only eggplant dish they will eat. In fact, they can't stop eating it, they hoover it down.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Grate the parmesan cheese, set aside.
- Start heating your broiler.
- Locate your broiler pan and have it handy and ready to go.
- Take one eggplant, wash, slice lengthwise into thin slices ⅛th to ¼ inch (3 to 6 mm) thick. Leave skin on.
- Take a large, flattish vessel such as a plate, cake pan, etc. Pour in about ½ cup (125 ml) of olive oil to start.
- Dip each slice of eggplant into the boil, both sides, and place on broiler pan. Repeat until broiler pan is full. You'll almost certainly find you need a lot more olive oil; the eggplant is basically a sponge when it comes to olive oil.
- Pop under broiler for about 5 minutes. Test with a flipper to see if eggplant will lift relatively easy. When it does, flip it, and give it another 5 minutes or so.
- Remove broiler pan from oven, and arrange slices on platter. Get another pan of slices in the oven. While they're in the oven, sprinkle parmesan on the first layer of slices on the platter.
- When the second pan is done, put them on top the cheesed-up layer of slices already on the platter, then get another broiler pan of slices in the oven. When the slices have cooled a bit, sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese.
- You'll likely find that 1 eggplant will take about 3 broiler pan trips to the oven.
- You'll end up with the slices stacked in layers, with parmesan cheese between each layer and the top layer sprinkled with more parmesan cheese.
- Serve room temperature.
Notes
You can make this ahead, and store covered in refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving. Garish with Parmesan at time of serving.
For a broiler pan, we use one of the "classic" North American ones, which has a top try with slits in it, which allows the oil to drain down into the broiler pan.
You can be as generous with the parmesan cheese as you want to; the ¼ pound is just a guideline and we usually use lots more.
You will be amazed how much olive oil you go through with this recipe.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!