Bubba's Fried Eggplant

A number of DeLucia descendents described different ways to make eggplant, so I decided to post Bubba's version first. I hope others will chime in with their own version. Perhaps we'll post a competing recipe, taste-test, and hold a vote for the favorite at the reunion. My husband, Matt Pascal, makes a baked version and uses olive oil and fresh basil, saving a few thousand mg of cholesterol, but really -- aren't cholesterol and Italian almost synonyms? Interestingly, there are as many words and spellings for eggplant in different Italian dialects (melanzana, moulignon, etc.) as there are recipes among the descendents of Joe and Maria.

Ingredients
4 large eggplants
salt and pepper
Italian flat-leaf parsley
6 eggs
canola oil
2-4 cups home-made pasta sauce (recipe to come)
1 - 2 cups grated Romano cheese

Directions
Peel the eggplants and slice them very, very thin. Lay the eggplant slices on paper towels, sprinkle with salt, and let them sit for about an hour. This should remove the water from the eggplant.

Dab the eggplants with paper towels to remove the moisture and some of the salt.

Beat six eggs. Add some parsley and pepper. Dip the eggplant slices in the egg mixture.

Heat canola oil in a frying pan. Do not use olive oil, as it won't heat correctly. Fry the eggplant slices until "nice and crisp." Drain on paper towels.

In a 9 x 13 dish, layer the eggplant with pasta sauce and grated romano cheese. Use as little sauce as possible, just a scraping on the bottom, and a dab on each eggplant slice. According to Rose, you want to taste the eggplant, not the sauce. The final layer should be cheese. Mangia!

Cin dun!