Layered fried eggplant with tomato and mozzarella: the great dish of southern Italy
Origin: Sicily / Campania, Italy
From the journey of Eggplant / Aubergine.
Parmigiana di melanzane is arguably the most important eggplant dish in the Western world, a deep, rich, oven-baked construction of fried eggplant slices layered with tomato sauce, mozzarella (or fior di latte), Parmigiano Reggiano, and fresh basil, baked until molten and unified. It is one of those dishes in which a sequence of unremarkable ingredients, eggplant, tomatoes, cheese, oil (transforms entirely in the oven into something that transcends any of its parts. The name is contested and has generated more argument than almost any other Italian dish. 'Parmigiana' does not mean it comes from Parma) it is fundamentally southern Italian, from Sicily or Campania, and Parma has no credible historical claim to it. The most compelling etymology derives from the Sicilian word 'parmiciana' (the overlapping, offset slats of a Persian window blind or louvred shutter) which describes with precision the layered, fanned structure of the eggplant slices as they are arranged in the baking dish. The Persian-shutter theory is visually and linguistically persuasive. Eggplant arrived in Sicily with Arab settlers during the Emirate of Sicily (9th–11th century CE), carried across the Mediterranean from the Arab world where 'badinjan' had been cultivated and cooked for centuries. The Arabs brought with them not only the vegetable but the technique of frying in abundant oil (the Roman culinary tradition had been more inclined to boiling and stewing) and the deep, spiced tomato-adjacent sauces that were the precursors to modern Sicilian cooking. The eggplant itself was met with suspicion by Italian physicians; the name 'melanzana' was long folk-etymologised as 'mela insana' (insane apple) in the belief that it caused madness, though the true etymology is simply a corruption of the Arabic. The addition of tomato came after 1492 with the Columbian Exchange, arriving in Italy via Spain, which ruled the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. It was in southern Italy (where both the eggplant from the Arab Mediterranean and the tomato from the New World via Spain converged) that parmigiana as we know it crystallised, probably during the 17th or 18th century. The first written records of something recognisable as parmigiana appear in Neapolitan and Sicilian cookery manuscripts of the mid-18th century. It remains one of the supreme examples of culinary syncretism: a dish whose every major ingredient arrived from a different civilisation and whose synthesis is entirely and unmistakably Italian.
Parmigiana di melanzane is one of the rare dishes that is equally extraordinary hot, warm, and at room temperature, a property that makes it perfect for large gatherings, because it can be made entirely in advance. It improves dramatically after a night in the refrigerator as the layers compress and the flavours unite; reheat gently in a low oven (150°C) covered in foil for 20 minutes. The hard-boiled eggs are traditionally Neapolitan and Sicilian, do not omit them if you want the dish in its fullest historical form. The question of whether to use a little flour or egg as a coating before frying is disputed: some cooks dredge lightly in flour for a slightly crisper surface; the Sicilian tradition is more often to fry undredged. Both produce excellent results. Do not use buffalo mozzarella: it is too wet for baking.
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