I'm gonna make for my family a beautiful aubergine
parmesan Milanese, I love doing this it's a brilliant way to really elevate the humble
aubergine to the next level right? And what I'm going to give you is a method
where we actually tenderize the aubergine, make it creamy on the inside, crispy on the
outside with the parmesan so good, and then I'm going to serve that with a sweet tomato
basil and garlic sauce. Simple pasta, bit of parmesan, happy days. So look it's a really quick one to do and
it's a really fun process. So first of all what we need to do is get
the aubergine sliced up into 4 one-centimetre slices. Literally just shave the end of the black
skin to expose the white flesh, do the same on the other side, and then what we want to
do is cut it in half. Now I leave the stalk on because it really
helps to hold the whole thing together. Now once you've got it in half again exactly
the same put the knife in between, gently cut down through to the stalk again all the
way through. So what we have here essentially is like 4
escalopes of aubergine. So first of all what we need to do is draw
out the moisture. Now it's going to look like I'm going to over
salt it but I will be taking half of this salt off, but this salt is really important
for this tenderisation right? So we're going to put some of this aubergine
on the salt here like that, and that will start to bring the moisture out of the aubergine. It actually starts to change the texture right,
and we can actually treat it like meat and we can start to tenderise that. And if you use like a regular meat bat or
even your fist, what you can do is start pounding and you'll start to completely, completely
change the texture. By doing this you're going to get a creamy
inside and by cooking it the way I'm going to cook it it's going to be really crispy
on the outside. So simply flip that over and then we'll do
the other side. So already this kind of feels completely different
and that's just from a little bit of time with salt and a little bit of tenderisation. And then all I do now is get a bit of kitchen
paper and just dab off that sort of salty juice like that. So next up, breadcrumbs. What I'm going to do is take this lovely vegetable
and make it really really crunchy. So I've got 2 free-range eggs, whisked up
so they're nice and loose. Now let's talk about the breadcrumbs. I love to try and get the rosemary focaccia. Why, because it's white it's crunchy but also
the rosemary and garlic in this will give your breadcrumbs extra flavour but with one
ingredient. Of course you can use whatever bread you want
but the more exciting your bread is the more exciting the flavour will be on the outside
of your aubergine right? So 100 grams of bread I want and just whack
that straight into a food processor, like that. What I quite like is it's kind of got a little
bit of substance to it look at that, it's bouncy there's some chunks in there you can
see the little bits of rosemary as well. So, now we're going to take our lovely aubergine
just like you would if it was a cut of meat, season it up with a little pepper like that
and then into the egg. That's kind of like your binding that's your
glue. Can you see the difference in the texture
right? If you'd have just cut the aubergine it would
never do that it would actually break. Shake the plate of breadcrumbs here, let the
excess come off. Then put it onto the breadcrumbs and then
use your other hand otherwise it will get sticky to cover it. Pat it down, a bit of pressure. And then a little shake. But that my friends is a beautiful breadcrumbed
aubergine. So one down, three to go. Beautiful! Okay so we've got those four done. So now get a large non-stick pan on a high
heat, a nice swig of oil goes in there, and then I'm just going to lay our lovely breadcrumbed
aubergine into that oil and start to fry it. I want to get it lightly golden to about 2
minutes each side. Now look the great thing about this recipe
is traditionally of course it will be veal right? Or chicken or pork sometimes. And bigging up the veg I think is a really
nice thing to do. So let's just have a little look at this first
one that went in, look that's lovely. So let's flip that over, look at that. Nice and sizzly. That black skin gets really nice and crispy
too. Look at that golden, crisp and delicious. And I've experimented doing the same preparation
with slices of butternut squash, beautiful pumpkin amazing, courgettes or even a mixture
of different ones. And I think it's just a brilliant way to enjoy
veg but we should all be enjoying more veg, right? So get yourself some Parmesan, and this is
when things get even tastier. Garlic, rosemary, breadcrumbs. Now a little Parmesan is going to be good. Get a fine grater and just kind of do long
strokes on a baking tray. So that's like the welcoming party to our
lovely aubergines. So have a little look at these oh yes, that
is beautiful. That's gonna be so tasty, look at that. Here we go. And then as it's all sizzling and gorgeous
then we go over with some more long strokes of Parmesan and this will just become one,
this will just melt into the aubergine. So at this stage this beautiful thing goes
in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius which is 350 Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes. Actually 10 minutes is a pretty good number
because I've got some spaghetti here and it says cooked for... 10 minutes. We'll boil that up. At the same time we're going to make the simplest
quickest tomato sauce ever. So first up, tinned tomatoes. There's plum tomatoes great, chopped tomatoes,
passatas, use whatever you like. But in the world of tinned tomatoes there's
actually cherry tinned tomatoes and they're blooming delicious and I've only really found
them in the supermarkets in the last couple of years, so look out for these lovely little
cherry tomatoes right because they're gorgeous, they're sweet, and they're picked at their
very best. So in a pan we go with a little olive oil
and then a couple of cloves of garlic. Just run your knife through it, easy peasy
right? Get that into the oil. We want this to be sweet so don't get too
much colour on that. Not always but sometimes I put a little bit
of chilli in there. I want it to be very mild the kids are going
to have it so I'll take the end off, halve it, and I'll take the seeds out right? And then I'll put that whole chilli in and
then I can take it out later but it's going to give this tomato sauce a hum. It won't be hot it won't be spicy. So in we go. And then as soon as there's a little bit of
colour on the lovely garlic then we'll break the frying and go to boiling these beautiful
cherry tomatoes. All you need to do is bring those cherry tomatoes
up to the boil. We'll season it with a little pepper and some
salt. And then some basil, about half a bunch just
tear it up. And now we have a beautiful delicious fast
gorgeous tomato sauce. Put that on low. Pasta's got a few more minutes to go. Right 10 minutes is up let's have a little
look here. Look at that. You can see it's sizzling away. That's going to give you the most amazing
texture. So look let that cool down, if you look in
the pan here see how it's just been on a very low heat just drying up right? What you've done is concentrate flavour, so
now what we can do is take our lovely pasta and let the excess water rehydrate this. So cook that pasta nice and al dente and then
let it kind of do that last bit of cooking in the tomato sauce, so the pasta and the
sauce kind of become one. Simple stuff but so good. Look at that! I just love it. Extra splash of water. Get that consistency right. If you want to put a little Parmesan in the
pasta absolutely you can. It's just joyful. Right let's plate up. Grab half of that pasta and just let it kind
of hang, right? And then let it just kind of drape across
the plate. Bosh. Few bits of the lovely cherry tomato on top
they're so soft and tender. Get a little slice under the aubergine, you
can see how crispy that's gone and just lay it over the top. And I just love it, it's like the simplest
sauce but it just feels special. A few little baby basil leaves and maybe one
last little kiss of Parmesan if you want but that's it. Job's done. Aubergine Milanese, simple pasta, and then
the simplest quickest little sweet tomato sauce. Let's have a go come on, let's get in there. So what I want from the aubergine is crisp
on the outside and really buttery tenderness on the inside. Let's just go for a bit of aub' first. Look at that. For me it's all about taking the everyday
aubergine and just elevating it to the next level. Mm. I love it. Absolutely delicious. Because you've got that beautiful crunch and
then the inside of the aubergine is so buttery and silky it's got texture, it's got deep
flavour. This dish makes me happy. If you've never enjoyed aubergine cooked like
this you've got to try it. Beautiful mouthful of deliciousness. River! Dinner Right d'you want some slurpy pasta? Big or small bit? Big. Theeere you go. Who's that on my foot? Now Buddy, this is the crispiest aubergine. Do you like it? Mhm. That is delicious.
