Eggplant Marinara Recipe
- 3 large eggplants (a little more than 3 pounds total), peeled in vertical strips with a vegetable peeler, leaving alternating strips of skin, and sliced into ½-inch-thick disks
- ¼ cup olive oil
- Fine sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
- About 3 cups Tomato Sauce
- 3 cups grated Pecorino Romano
- ½ ball fresh mozzarella (about 8 ounces), cut into ¼-inch-thick slices (or, if you're feeling fancy, 1 ball of mozzarella di bufala, sliced the same way)
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Toss the sliced egg-plant with the olive oil, salt, and white pepper to taste in a large mixing bowl, making sure that the eggplant is evenly dressed. Arrange the eggplant slices in a single layer on two baking sheets.
- Pop the eggplant into the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, flipping it once midway, until it's lightly mottled in parts and deeply browned in others and beginning to-but not quite yet-shrink away from the skin. Remove from the oven (leaving the oven on).
- Coat the bottom of a medium roasting pan (or other casserole or ovenproof vessel appropriate for a lasagna-type preparation) with a thin slick of tomato sauce. Nestle a single layer of eggplant slices into the sauce, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and give the eggplant a good coating of Pecorino. Repeat until all the ingredients are used-sauce, eggplant, Pecorino-finishing with a layer of cheese. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 3½ hours.
- Serve eggplant marinara hot, cold, or in between. Arrange a layer of the mozzarella slices over the top of the dish just before you serve it.
