Solving the Puzzle of Eggplant Parmesan

'“No dish has ever been devised that tastes more satisfyingly of summer,” Marcella Hazan wrote of eggplant Parmesan in her definitive (and assertive) cookbook, “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.” (I might argue that if she’d never been to a clambake or a crab boil, just this once she might have been wrong.)

But at the end of the season — when the tomatoes are destined for sauce instead of salad, the eggplants are shiny and firm, and the idea of a casserole begins to seem appealing again — eggplant Parmesan beckons to many cooks. In Italy, the dish is soft and silky, with the eggplant acting as a succulent sponge for the flavors of olive oil and tomato.

But I’ve never made an eggplant Parmesan that I didn’t regret. . .

In the real world, how to put crunchy eggplant, juicy tomato sauce and melted cheese together on one plate? As is often the case, the answer to my cooking puzzle was already lurking in the memory of Jacques Pépin, the French-American chef who has been cooking professionally since he was 13. (At that time in France, it was possible to leave school and become an apprentice in your teens.)'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/dining/eggplant-parmesan.html?

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018942-crunchy-eggplant-parmesan