L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 26 L'Italo-Americano E g g p l a n t p a r m i g i a n a : when I used to l i v e a b r o a d , i t w a s o n e o f m y culinary cavalli di battaglia. Simple to make enough to be thrown together on a week- night, yet full of Italian va- va-voom. Eggplant, a staple of our national cuisine and, more in general, a key ingre- dient across the Mediter- r a n e a n , i s n ' t a s p o p u l a r everywhere in the world, but this doesn't mean that its estimators aren't many. In the US, parmigiana is one of the dishes Italian-American families happily serve when they want to get some "taste of home" on their table. It is a well-loved dish on both sides of the Atlantic, and rightly so, because you can't quite beat the perfect bal- ance between decadent fried eggplant, fresh tomato sauce and basil, and creamy moz- zarella cheese, all topped perfectly with the tanginess of parmigiano. You can have it cold or hot, and it's equally delicious, reason for which it is a perfect, all-year-round meal. M e l a n z a n e a l l a parmigiana - this is how we call the dish in Italian - is pretty ubiquitous in the Bel- paese: from North to South, we all cook it and love it. But h a v e y o u e v e r w o n d e r e d where it originates from? Y o u m a y t h i n k i t s n a m e gives it away, but perhaps it isn't really so. "Parmigiana" m e a n s f r o m P a r m a , i n Emilia, but there are other regions in Italy that claim to be the motherland of this traditional dish: Sicily and Campania. A n a r t i c l e p e n n e d b y Roberto Roveda for the newest issue of Focus Storia s h e d s s o m e l i g h t o n t h e a p p a r e n t m y s t e r y o f t h e dish's origins. Fundamental- ly, Roveda writes, there are FRANCESCA BEZZONE ed parmigiana again in his books, this time made with melanzane. In 1837, Caval- canti published a famous culinary book, Cucina Teori- c o - P r a t i c a , t o w h i c h f o l - lowed a second edition two years later, enriched with an appendix, Cusina Casarino- la co la Lengua Napoletana ("home cooking in Neapoli- t a n d i a l e c t " ) . H e r e , h e offered a recipe for a dish of layered eggplant with cheese and either meat or tomato sauce. And a few leaves of basil, of course. According to some food h i s t o r i a n s , h o w e v e r , t h e recipe's inception should be sought further back in time and… some miles south of Naples. Sicilians have long c l a i m e d m e l a n z a n e a l l a p a r m i g i a n a i s t h e i r o w n invention and, looking at things closely, they may well be right. The eggplant came to Italy thanks to the Arabs, who brought it to Sicily in the early Middle Ages. By the 15th century, this veg- etable was common on Sicil- ian tables. Its name would come from the word petron- ciana, which was how the Arabs called it or, perhaps, f r o m t h e S i c i l i a n w o r d parmiciana, a term used to indicate the wooden laths that form a shutter, the look of which could be compared, with some imagination, to the layers of parmigiana. But the clearest etymolo- gy for the name of our dish remains that linking it to Parma. The use of parmi- giano reggiano in the recipe of eggplant parmigiana is ubiquitous across the coun- try, which could be a sign of i t s g e o g r a p h i c a l o r i g i n . However, some point out that pecorino was also used i n e a r l y v a r i a t i o n s o f t h e recipe, which would weaken the soundness of this partic- ular explanation. In fact, detractors of the Parma ori- gin of parmigiana also point o u t t h a t t h e a d j e c t i v e " p a r m i g i a n a " w a s u s e d , especially in the 14th and 15 centuries to indicate a spe- cific way of cooking vegeta- b l e s i n l a y e r s , w h i c h h a d nothing to do with the Emil- ian city. It would be only in the 17th and 18th centuries that "parmigiana" became the adjective to add to all d i s h e s w h e r e p a r m i g i a n o reggiano was an important ingredient. As often happens when it comes to our cuisine, pin- pointing the origin of a dish isn't simple, especially when i t i s c o m m o n a c r o s s t h e country. Perhaps, however, R o b e r t o R o v e d a i s r i g h t when he says that the truth may be right there in the mix: not of ingredients, but p l a c e s . T h e e g g p l a n t w a s likely introduced to Italy by Arabs through Sicily, and t h e r e c i p e f o r e g g p l a n t parmigiana was developed in Naples, but it reached its m o d e r n b a l a n c e , w h e r e parmigiano reggiano is key, in Parma, with the addition of the famous cheese. This a perfect example of regional culinary fusion, which is also e x p l a i n e d b y t h e i n t e n s e trading and cultural connec- tion among all areas of Italy well before unification took place in 1861. When it comes to the per- fect recipe for melanzane alla parmigiana, simplicity a n d q u a l i t y r e m a i n k e y : fresh ingredients, Made in Italy mozzarella and parmi- giano reggiano, some coarse salt to drain moisture from the vegetable before frying, and that's it. Simple, whole- some, good and … historical- ly accurate! Parmigiana is a layered dish made with eggplant, tomato sauce and, of course, parmigiano reggiano (Photo: Massimiliano Gallo/Dreamstime) LA BUONA TAVOLA RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES Eggplant parmigiana: where does it really come from? t h r e e v e r s i o n s o f h o w melanzane alla parmigiana came to be, each associated with a different region. The first written attesta- tion of a parmigiana-style recipe comes from Neapoli- tan chef Vincenzo Corrado and his Il Cuoco Galante, a cookbook published in 1733 where he proposed a parmi- giana made with fried zuc- chini. A century later, anoth- er famous Neapolitan chef, Ippolito Cavalcanti, present-

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