Contents
Contents
Aubergine parmigiana with spiced tomato and oozing mozzarella
No one can make melanzane alla Parmigiana like my mum could, not even me, but this – her slightly adapted recipe – comes close. I’ll be honest, this dish is still a labour of love even in an air fryer, but you don’t need to salt the aubergines as you do in the traditional recipe, as they won’t soak up oil the way they do in a frying pan, so that saves a step. If there is any left over, eat it at room temperature next day in a crispy ciabatta: a must-try.
Serves 4
2 large aubergines
4–5 tablespoons olive oil
250g grated mozzarella cheese
60g finely grated Parmesan cheese
For the sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed 500g tomato passata
1–2 tablespoons chilli oil, or to taste
20 basil leaves
50g mascarpone
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Trim and peel the aubergines, then slice lengthways into 5mm-thick slices. Preheat the air fryer to 200°C for 3 minutes.
Rub or brush the olive oil lightly over the aubergine slices, then set on a tray or plate. It will take about 3 batches to cook them all. Place your first batch in the air fryer fitted with the basket insert so they’re only overlapping a little and cook for 8 minutes. Remove and repeat the process until all the slices have been cooked.
Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Place the olive oil and the garlic in a large shallow saucepan and fry over a medium heat for 30–60 seconds, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon. Pour in the passata, chilli oil, basil, 1½ teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper and stir for 2 minutes.
Add the mascarpone, stir to combine, then reduce the heat slightly and leave to simmer for 12 minutes. Taste: this is the time to add a bit more chilli oil if you want a stronger kick. Set aside. Reduce the air fryer temperature to 180°C.
Lay one-third of the aubergine in a deep oven dish that fits in the air fryer (mine measured 20 × 20 × 6cm), or directly into the air fryer drawer, if yours is the same size, ideally lined with a silicone liner. Ladle over just under one-quarter of the sauce. Sprinkle over 60g mozzarella and 20g Parmesan. Repeat the layers twice more. You’ll have extra sauce and mozzarella left to make a last layer; this is absorbed through the dish while it cooks and helps keep it extra-moist. Sprinkle over a pinch of pepper and air fry for 10 minutes.
Reduce the air fryer temperature to 160°C and bake for 20 minutes or until hot right through and browned on top. Leave to rest for 15 minutes, then serve.
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Extracted from Gino’s Air Fryer Cookbook: Italian Classics Made Easy by Gino D’Acampo. Published by Bloomsbury on 24th October (Hardback £22) Photography credit: Haarala Hamilton.