Fairytale Parmesan

I have a love affair going with fairy tale eggplant.
Of all the late summer delights, they are by far one of my favorites.

These miniature beauties harbor all the big flavors of their larger aubergine counterparts, without any of the bitterness. In fact, they bake up tender, buttery, and delicious. As if that weren't enough, there's at least one local farmer who has decided to grow scads of these babies, and make them available to me every week at the farmer's market. So, I've been buying them up 2-3 pounds at a time.
Of course, what this means is that I have to think of all sorts of ways to use up the little suckers!

Fortunately, they're a breeze to prepare.
They don't require peeling or salting. So, one of our favorite things to do is to toss them with a bit of olive oil and put them on the grill for a while. In fact, that's exactly what we did with the first few batches of them.

But, lately, I've found myself searching for something new.

After having so much success oven frying zucchini for zucchini fries, I decided to try the same technique on eggplant. Why not, right?

I sliced the fairytales in half lengthwise, dredged them, and placed them in the oven. Most of the way through the cooking time, I placed a thin slice of parmesan on top and returned them to the oven until the parmesan was melted.
After that, I threw the crispy, cheesy eggplants over the top of a pan of pasta with marinara sauce... and placed the entire pan back in the oven, just to heat everything through.
Neither of us could complain about the results. In fact, these miniature eggplants offered up BIG flavor. The fairytales were crisp on the outside, but creamy on the inside. The cheese was melted, and slightly browned, dairy-sweet, with just the right hint of saltiness. And the pasta and sauce gave the dish that classic eggplant parmesan flavor.

Not bad for a weeknight...



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