It is my sister Rosanna’s birthday.
She asked me to prepare for her a melanzane alla parmigiana. It is her very favourite. I have not cooked one for such a long time although it is such a fantastic, dish, full of flavour.
I prefer not to fry the melanzane, as I find it tastes much lighter.

• pre heat the oven 200˚

• peel the melanzane like a zebra and slice them about 1 cm thick
• brush them with a little olive oil
• bake them in the oven for about 10 minutes or until they start to colour
• prepare the tomato sauce:
• slice one medium Spanish onion thinly
• gently fry it in a little olive oil and butter
• add 3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• fresh sage, rosemary and a small chilli, roughly chopped
•  2 fresh bay leaves
• 1 small tin of anchovies ( 20 gr)
• 2 small tins of tomato concentrate ( 100 gr)
• let it all gently cook for about 10 minutes
• add 2 tins of pelati ( 900 gr)
• cover and cook, stirring from time to time on low heat for 30 minutes
• taste the sauce, it should be strong in flavour, adjust salt and pepper

• lightly oil an ovenproof dish
• make one layer of melanzane
• add a few ladles of tomato sauce
• 1 buffalo mozarella broken up in little pieces
• 3 tablespoons of grated parmigiano

• continue like this, until you used up all the melanzane ( about 3 layers)

• on the last layer ad a few knobs of butter
• bake in the oven for about 30 minutes

• the parmigiana should be crunchy on the top
• I served it with a green salad, a tomato salad and a fennel salad
• you can also eat the parmigiana cold, it will slice better

• happy, happy birthday Rori, you look more beautiful than ever xxx