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Parmigiana di melanzane – aubergine parmigiana
’a parmigiana ’e mulignane
Parmigiana di melanzane
Fried aubergine, provola cheese, tomato and basil, baked au gratin.
Contains
Naples and Sicily both claim it as their own. One of the earliest written recipes is Neapolitan: Duke Ippolito Cavalcanti published it in the nineteenth century in his treatise on cookery.
The story of ’a parmigiana ’e mulignane
’A parmigiana ’e mulignane, aubergine parmigiana, is a bake of fried aubergines layered with tomato, provola or mozzarella, parmesan and basil, then finished in the oven.
The first written recipes are Neapolitan. In the eighteenth century the cook Vincenzo Corrado, in “Il cuoco galante”, describes aubergines “alla parmegiana” with butter, herbs, spices, parmesan and an egg-yolk cream: still without tomato. In the first half of the nineteenth century Duke Ippolito Cavalcanti, in the “Cucina teorico-pratica”, gives the version with fried aubergines arranged “layer upon layer”, parmesan and tomato sauce. Between these two books, as tomatoes spread, the dish took on its present form.
Its origin is still disputed: Campania, Sicily, Calabria and Puglia all claim it. The name divides opinion too. Some say it comes from parmesan; others from the Sicilian “parmiciana”, the slats of a shutter, which recall the overlapping layers. Neither theory has been proven.
Is parmigiana from Naples or Sicily?
It is disputed. The first written recipes are Neapolitan, by Vincenzo Corrado in the eighteenth century and Ippolito Cavalcanti in the nineteenth; the Sicilians claim the name. No source settles the question.
Why is it called parmigiana if it isn’t from Parma?
There are two theories: parmesan cheese, or the Sicilian “parmiciana”, a window shutter, after the overlapping layers of aubergine.
Who wrote the first recipe for parmigiana with tomato?
Duke Ippolito Cavalcanti, in the “Cucina teorico-pratica”, published in Naples in the first half of the nineteenth century. Before him, Vincenzo Corrado describes one without tomato.