I'm gonna make for my family a beautiful aubergine parmesan Milanese, I love doing this it's
a brilliant way to really elevate the humble aubergine to the next level right?
And what I'm going to give you is a method where we actually tenderize the aubergine,
make it creamy on the inside, crispy on the outside with the parmesan so good, and then
I'm going to serve that with a sweet tomato basil and garlic sauce.
Simple pasta, bit of parmesan, happy days.
So look it's a really quick one to do and it's a really fun process.
So first of all what we need to do is get the aubergine sliced up into 4 one-centimetre
slices.
Literally just shave the end of the black skin to expose the white flesh, do the same
on the other side, and then what we want to do is cut it in half.
Now I leave the stalk on because it really helps to hold the whole thing together.
Now once you've got it in half again exactly the same put the knife in between, gently
cut down through to the stalk again all the way through.
So what we have here essentially is like 4 escalopes of aubergine.
So first of all what we need to do is draw out the moisture.
Now it's going to look like I'm going to over salt it but I will be taking half of this
salt off, but this salt is really important for this tenderisation right?
So we're going to put some of this aubergine on the salt here like that, and that will
start to bring the moisture out of the aubergine.
It actually starts to change the texture right, and we can actually treat it like meat and
we can start to tenderise that.
And if you use like a regular meat bat or even your fist, what you can do is start pounding
and you'll start to completely, completely change the texture.
By doing this you're going to get a creamy inside and by cooking it the way I'm going
to cook it it's going to be really crispy on the outside.
So simply flip that over and then we'll do the other side.
So already this kind of feels completely different and that's just from a little bit of time
with salt and a little bit of tenderisation.
And then all I do now is get a bit of kitchen paper and just dab off that sort of salty
juice like that.
So next up, breadcrumbs.
What I'm going to do is take this lovely vegetable and make it really really crunchy.
So I've got 2 free-range eggs, whisked up so they're nice and loose.
Now let's talk about the breadcrumbs.
I love to try and get the rosemary focaccia.
Why, because it's white it's crunchy but also the rosemary and garlic in this will give
your breadcrumbs extra flavour but with one ingredient.
Of course you can use whatever bread you want but the more exciting your bread is the more
exciting the flavour will be on the outside of your aubergine right?
So 100 grams of bread I want and just whack that straight into a food processor, like
that.
What I quite like is it's kind of got a little bit of substance to it look at that, it's
bouncy there's some chunks in there you can see the little bits of rosemary as well.
So, now we're going to take our lovely aubergine just like you would if it was a cut of meat,
season it up with a little pepper like that and then into the egg.
That's kind of like your binding that's your glue.
Can you see the difference in the texture right?
If you'd have just cut the aubergine it would never do that it would actually break.
Shake the plate of breadcrumbs here, let the excess come off.
Then put it onto the breadcrumbs and then use your other hand otherwise it will get
sticky to cover it.
Pat it down, a bit of pressure.
And then a little shake.
But that my friends is a beautiful breadcrumbed aubergine.
So one down, three to go.
Beautiful!
Okay so we've got those four done.
So now get a large non-stick pan on a high heat, a nice swig of oil goes in there, and
then I'm just going to lay our lovely breadcrumbed aubergine into that oil and start to fry it.
I want to get it lightly golden to about 2 minutes each side.
Now look the great thing about this recipe is traditionally of course it will be veal
right?
Or chicken or pork sometimes.
And bigging up the veg I think is a really nice thing to do.
So let's just have a little look at this first one that went in, look that's lovely.
So let's flip that over, look at that.
Nice and sizzly.
That black skin gets really nice and crispy too.
Look at that golden, crisp and delicious.
And I've experimented doing the same preparation with slices of butternut squash, beautiful
pumpkin amazing, courgettes or even a mixture of different ones.
And I think it's just a brilliant way to enjoy veg but we should all be enjoying more veg,
right?
So get yourself some Parmesan, and this is when things get even tastier.
Garlic, rosemary, breadcrumbs.
Now a little Parmesan is going to be good.
Get a fine grater and just kind of do long strokes on a baking tray.
So that's like the welcoming party to our lovely aubergines.
So have a little look at these oh yes, that is beautiful.
That's gonna be so tasty, look at that.
Here we go.
And then as it's all sizzling and gorgeous then we go over with some more long strokes
of Parmesan and this will just become one, this will just melt into the aubergine.
So at this stage this beautiful thing goes in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius which is
350 Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes.
Actually 10 minutes is a pretty good number because I've got some spaghetti here and it
says cooked for... 10 minutes.
We'll boil that up.
At the same time we're going to make the simplest quickest tomato sauce ever.
So first up, tinned tomatoes.
There's plum tomatoes great, chopped tomatoes, passatas, use whatever you like.
But in the world of tinned tomatoes there's actually cherry tinned tomatoes and they're
blooming delicious and I've only really found them in the supermarkets in the last couple
of years, so look out for these lovely little cherry tomatoes right because they're gorgeous,
they're sweet, and they're picked at their very best.
So in a pan we go with a little olive oil and then a couple of cloves of garlic.
Just run your knife through it, easy peasy right?
Get that into the oil.
We want this to be sweet so don't get too much colour on that.
Not always but sometimes I put a little bit of chilli in there.
I want it to be very mild the kids are going to have it so I'll take the end off, halve
it, and I'll take the seeds out right?
And then I'll put that whole chilli in and then I can take it out later but it's going
to give this tomato sauce a hum.
It won't be hot it won't be spicy.
So in we go.
And then as soon as there's a little bit of colour on the lovely garlic then we'll break
the frying and go to boiling these beautiful cherry tomatoes.
All you need to do is bring those cherry tomatoes up to the boil.
We'll season it with a little pepper and some salt.
And then some basil, about half a bunch just tear it up.
And now we have a beautiful delicious fast gorgeous tomato sauce.
Put that on low.
Pasta's got a few more minutes to go.
Right 10 minutes is up let's have a little look here.
Look at that.
You can see it's sizzling away.
That's going to give you the most amazing texture.
So look let that cool down, if you look in the pan here see how it's just been on a very
low heat just drying up right?
What you've done is concentrate flavour, so now what we can do is take our lovely pasta
and let the excess water rehydrate this.
So cook that pasta nice and al dente and then let it kind of do that last bit of cooking
in the tomato sauce, so the pasta and the sauce kind of become one.
Simple stuff but so good.
Look at that!
I just love it.
Extra splash of water.
Get that consistency right.
If you want to put a little Parmesan in the pasta absolutely you can.
It's just joyful.
Right let's plate up.
Grab half of that pasta and just let it kind of hang, right?
And then let it just kind of drape across the plate.
Bosh.
Few bits of the lovely cherry tomato on top they're so soft and tender.
Get a little slice under the aubergine, you can see how crispy that's gone and just lay
it over the top.
And I just love it, it's like the simplest sauce but it just feels special.
A few little baby basil leaves and maybe one last little kiss of Parmesan if you want but
that's it.
Job's done.
Aubergine Milanese, simple pasta, and then the simplest quickest little sweet tomato
sauce.
Let's have a go come on, let's get in there.
So what I want from the aubergine is crisp on the outside and really buttery tenderness
on the inside.
Let's just go for a bit of aub' first.
Look at that.
For me it's all about taking the everyday aubergine and just elevating it to the next
level.
Mm.
I love it.
Absolutely delicious.
Because you've got that beautiful crunch and then the inside of the aubergine is so buttery
and silky it's got texture, it's got deep flavour.
This dish makes me happy.
If you've never enjoyed aubergine cooked like this you've got to try it.
Beautiful mouthful of deliciousness.
River!
Dinner
Right d'you want some slurpy pasta?
Big or small bit?
Big.
Theeere you go.
Who's that on my foot?
Now Buddy, this is the crispiest aubergine.
Do you like it?
Mhm.
That is delicious.