A well established Italian favourite, the default recipe seems like a great vegetarian option, but the Parmesan cheese uses animal rennet so is not vegetarian, let alone vegan! However, there are ways to bring it into the veggie fold!
An aubergine parm, or egg plant parm in North America, is similar to a lasagne, except the aubergine takes the place of the pasta sheets as the separator.
There are three basic parts to the Parm:
- slices of aubergine / egg plant, either rounds or lengths.
- some kind of tomato ragu
- a cheesy layer
A really simple version will have a ragu of simply fried onion, maybe some garlic, some herbs and chopped tomato. That is then layered with the aubergine slices, fried or not, and just some grated cheese at each layer. It can be embellished with some breadcrumbs, and even some mozzarella topping.
Frying or not the aubergine is up to you. Most aubergines these days are not so bitter as needing salting to extract some moisture, but it frying them then it is worth doing so that they don’t absorb as much oil. Breading with a “egg wash” (chickpea flour and water can work well as an alternative to eggs) is also sometimes done. I like to roast them briefly, with just a brush of oil.
The more “advanced” cheese layer is often just a cheesy bechamel, which can of course be made with non-dairy milk, and oil instead of butter. You can make it cheesy by adding cheese, like a cheddar, vegan cheese (like a vegan cheddar!), or simply by adding nutritional yeast. I like the Violife Prosociano wedge (I think they might call it Parm in North America). You can cut the Parm with some veggie cheddar either.
I find aubergine rounds easier than long slices because I use the 7mm attachment on my mandolin cutter to get consistent width slices. I also will leave the skin on as I am roasting them and the skin will soften.
After slicing, I lay them out on a board and salt both sides. I will leave them for at least 10 minutes while I get on with prepping the ragu. When I come back to them I will pat them dry with paper towel, brush both sides with some olive oil, then roast at 200C for about 10 minutes. Once done, I leave them to cool on the roasting tray until I need them.
For the ragu, I tend to go more veg than less. You can just go with onion only. If so, I would use 2 cans of chopped tomatoes. I will generally clear out the fridge so have onion, garlic, courgette (zucchini), bell peppers, carrot, celery and mushrooms. With that load, I will only need 1 can of chopped tomatoes.
The veg will normally go into a saucepan with some oil - really to prevent sticking rather than to fry - over medium-hot heat, with some salt and some mixed herbs. Stir occasionally over 10 minutes or so, and then deglaze with a good splash of red wine, then allowing that to reduce for a few minutes. Next goes in some tomato paste to thicken things up, before adding the chopped tomato. Leave to simmer on a lower heat while you are doing the bechamel.
The bechamel is a fairly standard olive oil and flour sauté and the slowly stir in dairy or non-dairy milk that you have warmed. Once you have a nice thick sauce, stir in either some of the cheese you are using or a good handful of nutritional yeast.
Layer everything up on a roasting dish. I usually start with a little bechamel on the bottom, then aubergine, then ragu, bechamel, aubergine, ragu, bechamel, and a load of grated cheese.
Roast in a 200C oven for about 30 minutes. Leave to cool for 20 minutes before serving and devouring.