There are quite a few dishes that I have come to realize don’t really require a recipe. Alright, if you’ve caught on by now, I tend to actually bend the rules of recipe-following quite a bit – but there are some where I actually feel silly bookmarking or using one at all. Meals like tacos/quesadillas, some stews or chilis (though I think I still have to perfect the liquid:filler ratio and certain spice combinations before I can totally leave recipes behind for those), pizza once you get past the dough and perhaps even the sauce, and, you guessed it: eggplant parmesan. Sure, there are hundreds of different ways to prep, season, cook, and enjoy this Italian dish, but at the same time, you can’t really go wrong once you’ve made it once or twice. Slice the eggplant, salt it and drain it, rinse it and dry it, and proceed however you like eggplant parmesan best: breaded and sautéed, “naked” and baked, pre-broiled and finished in the oven, even grilled and then topped with a fresh sauce and cheese would work. You add a fairly generic though flexible array of herbs – oregano, basil, rosemary – and you really have your meal.
As much as I love to cook and make eggplant parm for myself, I rarely am driven to write about each and every attempt. I’ve already written about chicken and eggplant parmesan, as well as what I like to call Saucey and Sassy Eggplant Parm, so why tell you about this one today? It’s not like I’m desperate for something to write about – in fact, I wager you’re liable to get sick of me before the week’s out and I still won’t come close to getting through all of the amazing foods I’ve been cooking up these past few months. Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret: this post isn’t really about eggplant parmesan.
It’s about sauce.
As is the case more often than not, I am on the quest for The Perfect ______: the perfect fudgy brownie, the perfect chocolate chip cookie, the perfect meatball. Well, I am also on a question for The Perfect Sauce. I have to say, L’s mom makes a dynamite one that I have the recipe for but just haven’t had a chance to make on my own yet, so it’s very likely that I already have The One slipped away between cookbooks on my shelf at home. But still, I didn’t feel satisfied, and it wasn’t until I made this eggplant parmesan recipe that I understood why. There’s actually no such thing as the perfect sauce. No one person could possibly only need one red sauce recipe! At least, I certainly need more than that. I need a lighter, spicier sauce bordering on a fradiavlo; I need a basic marinara that can always be there for me and please any palate; and I, and I do believe most people, in fact, need this sauce, this beautiful, deep sauce that has you drowning in its fullness before the meal’s over. The wine is the prominent ingredient; not the tomatoes, and it’s a truly gorgeous thing. Make this sauce. Even if you have to tweak it, as I did in trying to scale it down to a single serving yield. There’s no excuse. This sauce will change your life.
Am I being too dramatic?
Maybe.
But it’s so good.
Show-Stopper Red Sauce, courtesy of Closet Cooking
Yield: 4 cups
The Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
28 ounces diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon oregano
1 bay leaf2
1 cup red wine
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
A parmigiano reggiano rind (optional)2
1 tablespoon basil, chopped
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
The Method
Heat the oil in a medium-large sauce pot and add in the onions, sautéing until translucent, approximately 5 minutes. Add in the garlic and sauté briefly until fragrant, approximately 1 minute. Add the celery and carrots, optionally season with salt and pepper, and sauté until the vegetables have softened, approximately 10 minutes. Finally, pour in the tomatoes and stir in the oregano, bay leaf, wine, balsamic vinegar, and parmigiano rind (if using). Simmer uncovered over low heat and allow the sauce to thicken, approximately 30-60 minutes. At the last minute, stir in the basil and parsley and turn off the heat.
Notes:
1I didn’t use this because I divided the recipe by 8 for a single serving, and 1/8 of a bay leaf is just ridiculous.
2I wish I had this to use! I didn’t, though, which is why I’ve indicated that it’s optional. The original recipe said that many more of the ingredients were “optional” including the red wine, and by all means if you don’t have one or two of the herbs or add ins make substitutions as you see fit, but I highly recommend making it as close to the recipe as possible because it was fantastic.
By the way, if you're interested in the Eggplant Parmesan recipe, you can find the recipe over at Closet Cooking.
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