Ring the Parm Alarm
Still good. I checked.
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with apologies to Adele …
Hello From the Other Side of Writing Book Three!
I spent five days with my parents in Connecticut last week—my dad is recovering from ankle replacement surgery and I wanted to help my mom out. (He’s doing great and is excited about his bionic joint.)
My primary function, aside from being a charming and lovely daughter, of course, was to make dinner. I’m so-so at the former, but enjoyed playing private chef for Frank and Carole. Night one we had broiled salmon with an arugula pesto, quick-pickled cucumbers, a little yogurt-cumin sauce, and rice. My father and I love rice.
On night two, I grilled a couple of stellar skirt steaks from a nearby farm. They were so marbled and so tasty—need to buy skirt more often. I blanched some asparagus and snow peas from Silamar Farm (the GOAT, if you’re ever near Millerton, NY), and made a Caesar-ish dressing for those.
My mom made pasta with bottarga on night three, and I added that recipe to the future calendar here, so stay tuned. So freaking good.
On night four, I wanted vegetarian. I wanted eggplant parm. Eggplant and tomato scream summer. Parm is a summer dish. The crowd (the two of them) concurred. The recipe I used is from That Sounds So Good, and there’s a video for it too, which I didn’t watch but you should enjoy!
I knew that making eggplant parm would be a process. My own headnote warns of it. But as a person with no hobbies, crafts, or places to be, I was as much in the mood to cook as I was to eat the results. I wanted to spend a couple hours puttering in the kitchen, doing things. It makes me feel useful, in a way that cleaning out the garage never could, because cleaning out the garage is a hideous chore, but cooking is a blast.
I went to market—the only choice there was Italian eggplant, but they were in excellent shape. Shiny and taut and not too big. I needed mozzarella and ricotta, and that was it. I made a marinara from scratch with the excellent Bianco tomatoes I found in my mom’s pantry, plus onion, garlic, fennel seed, and dried oregano. I sliced, I salted, I pressed, and I dredged the eggplants. I fried them like cutlets, and snacked on a few of them, too.
I decided that 4:30 P.M. was a respectable hour to have some white wine. I sipped, I watched Vanderpump Rules on my laptop, I kept tabs on my sauce, and I had an epic day. My dad watched sports. My mom read 800 magazine articles and half of a book, by the looks of it. Marge ran herself so hard chasing deer down the driveway that she came back limping.
This is all to say: Do not make eggplant parm on a weeknight or even after a busy Friday. Make eggplant parm when you can roll into production around 3 P.M. Take your time. Clean as you go. We ate around 7:30 P.M. Frank chose a fantastic Argentinian red wine, and we sat in the TV room and watched a show (The Rehearsal) since he has to keep the foot elevated. A sheer delight, the whole thing!
Today, memories of leftover parm still coursing through my brain veins, I planned to post a couple of pics and link to the recipe. You know, the recipe. The recipe?? The recipe wasn’t here. Now it is.
xoCLM
The recipe for Eggplant Parmigiana is posted below for paid subscribers. Thank you for supporting my work!
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