"Parmigiana di Melanzane", according to Franco’s aunt. This means approximately
"Aubergines baked in Parma style". Unbelievably good, mine are quite good now.

Ingredients:

Flour
Eggs
Two or three large aubergines
Tomato passata (Tesco, Valfrutta, Cirio)
Garlic
Some chilli powder or tabasco.
Basil
Parmesan - buy it as a piece, grate yourself
Mozzarella - see if you can get some fresh one at Sainsbury's or Tesco
A baking pirex tray

1. Cut the aubergines approximately 5 mm thick. Tranversally or longitudinally, no difference.

2. Pass them in the flour for some coating. Beat some eggs into a fluffy foam. Pass the flour-coated
aubergines in the beaten eggs.

3. Fry them in extra virgin olive oil (about 1 cm deep in the pan)

4. Rest the slices on some paper to drain oil thoroughly.

5. Prepare the mozzarella in thin slices. Grate the parmesan.

6. Prepare a sauce by cooking some Passata (I use Valfrutta or Tesco’s) for 5 minutes with

basil leaves, a little pressed garlic, a pinch of salt and a hint of chilli or tabasco.

7. Then you start assembling in the tray.

8. Some sauce on the bottom.

9. One layer of aubergines.

10. One layer of mozzarella.

11. One layer of sauce.

12. One layer of grated parmesan cheese.

13. Repeat steps 9-12 twice more.

14. Add some sauce at the top. Now you can either freeze or bake.

15. Bake in the oven 200 degrees for 30 mins.

16. You can eat it. Whatever is left, it will twice as nice after 24hrs!

Ciao
Franco