Let’s talk eggplant (or aubergine, depending on where you live) parmesan: It’s a delicious and hearty vegetarian meal but honestly can be a bit labor-intensive. So when I saw that Lizzie Kamenetzky features a low-lift take on the dish in her upcoming cookbook Batch But Better (coming November 2), I knew it would quickly become a staple in my winter dinner rotation.
“One of my favorite dishes has to be aubergine parmigiana,” she writes, “but I was feeling a bit lazy, and the thought of frying up aubergines and making sauce was a bit more than I felt like doing.” (My feelings exactly!) With this version, there are only two steps, and “the oven does all the work,” Kamenetzky assures. And as an added bonus, it’s naturally gluten-free, too.
Instead of slicing, coating, and frying, this recipe just calls for roasting cubes of the eggplant with tomatoes and whole garlic cloves. The long, slow roast helps with getting the eggplant to that perfect texture. And don’t worry, you still get the glorious melty cheese part of the dish—the recipe calls for tossing on pieces of mozzarella in the last few minutes of roasting.
This recipe is portioned to serve four but still with plenty of leftovers. In her book, Kamenetzky provides two further recipes for using the extras: a simple pasta and mini calzones, both of which sound…pretty tasty to me.
Roast Aubergine + Tomatoes
Serves 4 (plus leftovers)
Excerpted with permission from BATCH BUT BETTER—3 Meals From 1: More Taste + Less Waste by Lizzie Kamenetzky, Kyle Books.
