You have to know that one of the first things that my mother-in-law told me about the childhood of my hubby was he loved so much to eat good food! Before she died I promised to her that I'll cook good food for his son and I did it.

The proof of the happiness of my hubby when he eat is also on the old photos of his family, where we can see the baby-Paolo with a big smile with something to eat in front of him ^_^ The same smile that I can see in his face when I cook something good!

Yesterday we had to go to his father's home, because this week his wife (she's his second wife) is out for a little vacation and so, every day, we go there to stay with him for some hours, just to know if everything it's ok. It's not a problem, because we live just few minutes from the house of Floriano (it's the name of my father-in-law) and I love to be there because it's really a quiet place between the nature. Yesterday we decided to have the dinner all together at Floriano's home and  it was the first time I cooked for my father-in-law (I met my hubby just few years ago and my father-in-law had already troubles getting in and out from his home cause his legs). 

As you can understand, I wanted to make a good impression cooking food ^_^

A couple of days ago, my mom gave me some eggplants from her garden and so I decided to cook the melanzane alla parmigiana! It's not a Summer food, but it's really an excellent dish and my hubby love it so much, so I did!

I want to share with you the recipe, because I read on line many different versions in English, but the recipe that I use (an italian recipe) is different:

Note: usually I love to use besciamella to cook this, but it's Summer and I needed to cook this recipe in a light way using mozzarella cheese instead the besciamella sauce ^_^ 

Ingredients:

2-3 eggplants

salt 

pepper

a bit of sugar

olive oil 

mozzarella cheese

Parmesan cheese

fresh basil

1 onion

tomato sauce (passata)

oil to fry

At first you have to cut the eggplant into a 0,5 cm slice, place them in a colander sprinkle them with salt, so their liquid will go out. Wait 40-50 minutes. After, you have to remove the salt from the slices (I use a sheet of kitchen paper) and fry them just a few (They become a little brown). A tip: place the fried slice on kitchen paper to remove the oil and make them more light)

While you're waiting the slices leave their liquid, you can make the tomatoes sauce:

- cut the onion and put it in a bowl with a bit of olive oil. Cook it for a couple of minutes (the onion will change the color)

- add the tomato sauce (the passata) with  a bit of water (about a glass of water). Add a bit of salt and pepper and (alert, this is a precious tip to cook this sauce!) a bit of sugar. I also add a bit of red wine to give it a great taste.

- cook it for about 30-40 minutes and after add some leaves of basil.

Now you have everything ready to "create" the melanzane alla parmigiana, so:

- Preheat oven to 150-200 C 

- In a baking dish,  spread a bit of the tomato sauce you made. Make a layer of eggplant slices over the sauce. Top the eggplant layer with a layer of the mozzarella (you have to cut it in little pieces and drain) . Repeat the layering process until all ingredients are finished. At the top sprinkle with many Parmesan cheese and now you can put the baking dish in the oven for about 30-45 minutes (you'll see the sauce is bubbly ^_^).

It's not a fast recipe (you need a couple of hours), but the result was super!!! My father-in-law was happy to eat them, my hubby was happy to eat them, so I it was really a great result, even if to cook them in a very hot day in Summer it was not so super :D

See ya soon

Silvia