EGGPLANT PIE
I usually only cook this for something special as it takes a while to do and it is very fattening as it is full of calories but delicious. It is also fairly rich.
It needs to be cooked a couple of days before to be really yummy.
You Need:
- A couple of grilled eggplants – I cheat here and buy it cooked from Norton Street Grocer.
- A good quantity of spaghetti sauce.
- Fresh white breadcrumbs
- And pecorino cheese. Quiet a bit.
Cook and prepare the eggplants by peeling slicing into reasonable slices by that I mean not paper thin and cook either on the bar-b-que or in a pan with olive oil
For the sauce I sauté a few cloves of garlic add a couple of tall jars of Passata and a handful of basil. S & P. Simmer for a while until a little thickened. If you have too much you can always use it for spaghetti and it will freeze.
To do the breadcrumbs: You will probably need 1 loaf of bread.
Heat a good quantity of olive oil in a pan. Needs to be fairly hot so the crumbs sizzle.
Drop a good handful of crumbs into the oil and keep stirring around and turning until brown. It soaks up lots of oil so you need to keep adding more. Keep doing this until all the crumbs are done.
- Now you should have the eggplant done
- The sauce ready
- The crumbs done.
Now start layering it all into a pie dish.
- Cover the bottom of the dish with the sauce
- Then a layer of eggplant
- Then a layer of cooked crumbs
- Then sprinkle cheese all over it and start again
- Sauce, eggplant, crumbs, cheese.
- Sauce, eggplant, crumbs, cheese.
- Finish with crumbs and cheese when you have a few layers. I usually have 3 or 4 depending on the depth of the dish.
Then cook in the oven for about 1 hour for it all to soak up.
Serve with crusty bread and green salad.
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