three cheese eggplant parmesan sandwiches
the best sandwich i've eaten in a long while
my friend julian is a super talented chef, food stylist, and entrepreneur. we’ve known each other for about 5 years and have been wanting to collaborate for at least half that time, so i’m very excited to announced that the day has finally arrived!
for our first collab, we decided to team up around a shared love: sandwiches. not just any sandwiches, but italian american classics that are hard to come by in berlin and oh so delicious.
first up in this series, we have our take on an eggplant parmesan sandwich. it’s saucy, it’s cheesy, and to quote julian directly, “it’s gorgeous.” we decided to take it over the top and layer up three slices of breaded, fried eggplant with three different cheeses: smoked scamorza (sourced from alte milch here in berlin), parmigiano reggiano, and buffalo mozzarella. it’s a messy one to eat, so have napkins prepared, but it’s seriously delicious and worth both the effort and the clean up.
after we took a little break from filming (watch the video for the recipe here) to eat this stacked-up sammie, we popped right back to kitchen to shoot our next recipe which may or may not involve sausages, garlic butter and one of my fav veggies (you guessed it, fennel). we don’t know how many sandwiches we’ll tackle together, so if you have a request, let me know and i’ll try to make it happen!
makes 2 sandwiches
for the tomato sauce
400 grams tomato puree
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 fresh basil leaves
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
salt
black pepper
for the eggplant
1 large eggplant
2 tablespoons salt, plus more for seasoning
50 grams all-purpose flour
2 eggs
100 grams fine breadcrumbs
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
20 grams finely grated parmesan cheese
vegetable oil for frying
to assemble
2 crusty ciabatta rolls
5 fresh basil leaves
100 grams smoked scamorza
40 grams finely grated parmesan
100 grams buffalo mozzarella
slice eggplant. salt generously. stack into a colander and weigh down over a bowl or in the sink. let sit for 30 minutes to draw the water out of the eggplant.
in the meantime, thinly slice garlic. add olive oil, garlic and basil to a small frying pan over medium heat. once the garlic is just turning golden around the edges, add tomato puree, oregano, chili flakes and season with salt and pepper. let simmer over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes; it should reduce by nearly half into a thicker, slightly darker tomato sauce.
set up three deep plates for your breading station: one with the flour, one with beaten eggs, one with the breadcrumbs. season flour and eggs with salt and pepper, and season breadcrumbs with oregano, salt, pepper and add grated parmesan cheese. set up a large frying pan with about half an inch of vegetable oil over medium high heat.
once the eggplant has rested, pat both sides dry with paper towels or a clean kitchen towel. once the oil is about 180°C/350°F (measured using a thermometer or a wooden chopstick that, once inserted into the oil, immediately forms bubbles around the chopstick which you can kind of see here), dredge both sides of each slice of eggplant in flour, then egg (shaking off the excess), then in breadcrumbs. add to the frying pan (you may need to work in batches depending on the size of your slices and pan) and fry until golden brown, about 3 minutes on each side. transfer to a paper towel-lined baking sheet and repeat until all the eggplant slices are fried.
slice buns in half then toast in a frying pan with a little olive oil. warm the tomato sauce over low heat and add fresh basil leaves. preheat your oven’s broiler or grill function and move an oven rack to the highest place in your oven.
to build the sandwiches, place the bottom slices of the toasted buns on a baking sheet. layer a slice of fried eggplant, two tablespoons of tomato sauce and half the scamorza on each bun. repeat, ending with parmesan cheese instead of scamorza. repeat one more time, ending with the mozzarella cheese. broil until the mozzarella cheese is melted and starting to brown, about 2 minutes. cover each sandwich with the top bun, slice in half and serve immediately.