Neil Perry's eggplant parmigiana with tomato sauce and basil oil

To make the basil oil, blanch the basil leaves in boiling water, drain immediately and refresh in iced water. Drain again and squeeze out the excess water.

Blend the basil leaves and oil in a blender until well combined, then pour into a jug and let stand overnight. Pour through a strainer lined with muslin (cheesecloth), allowing the solids to be left behind.

To make the tomato sauce, combine the tomatoes and their juice, the oil, garlic and sugar in a saucepan and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Simmer over medium heat until reduced by half.

Adjust the seasoning if necessary.

For the eggplant parmigiana, cut the eggplant into 1 cm (1/2 inch) thick slices lengthways. Place the slices into a colander, sprinkle with salt and let stand for 1 hour. Rinse the eggplant to remove the salt and pat dry with paper towel. Heat a shallow layer of oil in a frying pan, dust the eggplant slices in flour and shake off any excess. Shallow-fry the eggplant, in batches, until golden brown on both sides, then drain on paper towel.

To assemble, lightly grease a 2.25 litre (79 fl oz/9 cup) baking dish and line the base with a layer of fried eggplant. Spread with some tomato sauce, then scatter with a little of the mozzarella, Parmesan and basil leaves. Repeat this process twice, then finish with a final layer of eggplant.

Bake the parmigiana in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celsius (350F/Gas 4) for 10–15 minutes, or until warmed through. Divide the parmigiana among four plates and serve with basil oil.

This recipe is from Neil’s book Good Food published by Murdoch/Earl Carter  

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