Friday, September 11, 2009

Parmigiana di Zucchine

One of my favorite dishes is parmigiana di zucchine. I often prepare it when I have guests over for dinner as it seems to please everybody's taste. Every single guest that I have ever served this dish really liked it. Moreover, most of my friends like it so much, that they asked me for the recipe so that they could cook it for themselves.

Ingredients:
    4-5 zucchini
    10 oz mozzarella (sliced or grated)
    3 tbsp olive oil
    20 oz tomato sauce (I used to make my own tomato sauce, but I became lazy and now I buy ready one. I just usually add more freshly chopped oregano and basil to it.)
    3 eggs
    1/2 cup flour
    salt, pepper, oregano, basil
    4 tbsp grated Parmesan

Preparation time: 1h (40 min of work, 20 min in the oven)
Servings: 6-8
Calories: 2010 (total), 350 (assuming 6 portions)
Protein: 96g/16g
Fiber: 35g/6g

Cooking instructions:
  1. Peel the zucchini and slice it along the longer edge into around 4mm thick pieces.
  2. Toss the zucchini in the scrambled egg (with pepper and salt) and then in flour.
  3. Put 1 tbsp of olive oil in the large frying pan, heat it up and add zucchini. Fry it for 2-3 minutes on each side. After it is done (when the fork goes easily into it), place the zucchini onto a parchment paper to drain the excess of olive oil. Continue with frying the other slices of zucchini until all of them are ready.
  4. Pre-warm the oven to 350F.
  5. In a large baking dish layer: zucchini, tomato sauce, mozzarella, zucchini, tomato sauce, mozzarella, zucchini, Parmesan cheese.
  6. Bake parmigina at 350° for 20 minutes, or until thoroughly heated and bubbly. Let stand for 8 to 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

This is how parmigiana looks before it is baked: