Mike's Deli Famous Eggplant Parmigiana

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I am making this recipe again and realized I didn?t initially post comments. Make sure your slices of eggplant are consistent. Instead of my mandolin, I use my slicer and a set of calipers for perfect and even slices. Yeah, it is pretty anal, but delicious. I purchased a Krups slicer ten years ago and this tool has proved to be invaluable and you can get one for under a hundred clams. Make sure you properly drain the eggplant after frying. Allowing the finished product to set in a fridge for an hour before baking helps out as well. I slice at the recommended size. Peeling the eggplant is a personal option. If you use the end pieces while slicing lengthwise, those pieces will be the toughest if you don?t peel. It is a matter of taste whether you peel or no. I am peeling this time as I haven?t in the past. If you don?t make your own marinara, make sure you purchase a quality marinara sauce, like the Newman brand (plus you help charities. This recipe is a winner, especially if you use fresh mozzarella. I will continue to make this recipe as it is a hit.

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This is the best recipe, I Loved it & so did my family. f I ever get out of Ohio and go to New York I'm comming to Mike's,God bless Mike's Deli. And Thank you Bobby.
Thanks , Tammy Ramsey

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I made this for a family gathering and everyone loved it. I followed the recipe as written with one exception, I used Wondra flour instead of all purpose. Oh, and on the show Mike dipped the eggplant into the maranara sauce and I did too. It worked out great.

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After watching this episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay I simply had to try the recipe because it looked so delicious! I was not in the least bit disappointed with the results! I can clearly see why this dish won the challenge! Every time I make this dish everyone asks for more, even if they are already full!!!

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This dish was amazing the second time I made it. The first time, was not so good, but I did not follow the directions exactly. Several things to make sure that you absolutely do not forget to do are:
1. Cut the eggplant at least 1/4 inch thick, no more than 1/2 inch. I used a mandoline slicer and could only get as thick as 1/8 inch at the most. I think it made the dish have less eggplant and too much fried breading. I did a second batch and hand sliced the eggplant 1/4 inch on one half of the dish and 1/2 inch on the other half of the dish, just to see which I liked better. They were both good. I probably liked the 1/2 inch cut better, because I like vegetables. but my husband liked the 1/4 inch cut better.

2. Make sure that the oil is real hot before adding the breaded eggplant. After I added some more oil to the pan, I didn't give it enough time to heat back up before adding the next batch of breaded eggplant and I noticed that quite a bit of the breadcrumbs fell off and sank to the bottom of the pan.

3. Drain the fried eggplant on papertowels well, before putting into dish. I was trying to save time and didn't drain them at all. An absolute MUST! There was so much oil in the pan after it cooked and the taste of the oil in the finished product was so overwhelming. Not good. Also, after I plated it, some oil seeped out into the empty spots in the casserole pan and ended up covering the bottom of the dish. I totally ruined this dish because I didn't drain the eggplant before baking it. I did a second batch, the right way, and it turned out 5/ 5 stars! Wow, what a difference some draiining on paper towels makes!

4. If you have time to do this, refridgerate the dish before baking it. It gives tiime for all the yummy flavors to absorb into the eggplant.

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OK, forget about the prep time, its a joke. I used Bobby Flay's original recipe and made everything from scratch. That includes roasting the red peppers, skinning the roma tomatoes and making the sauce. I left the skin on the plant and used his covering techique. It made so much I had to invite the neighbors over! Needless to say they were blown away with the tast. This coupkled with some side pasta and a fine Chianti....Life is good! Total time from start to serve, about 4 hours but worth every minute. Have told my kids that's what we're having for Thanksgiving. Who needs turkey?

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Wow, I was blown away by this dish. The crispness of the thin eggplant in layers with sauce and cheese, they have a great meaty, fried cutlet taste. I think the key is making sure that your eggplant is THIN, about as thick as a saltine cracker, maybe a tiny bit thicker.

Couple of tips:
1. As others have recommended, use a mandoline, on a setting that's about 1/8" thick. Way easier to slice. Slice them THE LONG WAY.
2. Don't bother peeling the eggplant if you slice them thin; you won't taste the bitter peel anyway.
3. Fresh mozzarella only makes this dish better. So do homemade breadcrumbs.
4. The flour-egg-breadcrumbs breading approach is key. That's what takes the longest of this whole recipe. Why not make extra? Once breaded, you can freeze the eggplants nicely on a tray or plate, then wrap 'em up and put them in a freezer bag. Then fry on demand, assemble and bake.

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I made a pilgrimage to the Bronx after seeing this episode and tried Mike's eggplant parm. It was amazing. The recipe listed is pretty close but there are few key changes that I noticed in the episode that you can make to make this recipe more like Mike's:

1. Use a peeler to skin the eggplant- I saw them doing this on the episode and it made so much sense since I usually dislike the bitter outer skin of eggplant.

2. Slice the eggplant lengthwise with a mandolin (they use a deli slicer in the episode but who owns a deli slicer? or knife as thin as you can (1/8 inch I typically set mine at. This makes the eggplant less chewy after you fry it and also makes it very long- more like lasagna noodles when you layer it in the baking pan. If you don't have a Mandolin slicer, this recipe is reason enough to buy one.

3. If you have time, after frying the eggplant but before baking, refrigerate the baking pan with the eggplant, cheese, and sauce layers for a few hours to let everything seep in to the eggplant.

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Took a few tips from reviewers, omitted the flour, added Asiago, added Panko breadcrumbs, then added a few of my own. I did not have Italian bc, so I made it with 1/3 plain, 1/3 panko, 1/3 parmesan cheese, and then seasoned it with Italian seasoning, salt, garlic and crushed red pepper. Served it with rotini and left over sauce from Giada's Spicy Parsley Tomato Sauce. I scored major brownie points with the hubby!!!!

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I made this when the episode first aired, and it was fantastic!!
I made my own sauce, and used fresh mozz and basil leaves, it was so good I had at least two peices a day until it was gone, and I'm not a "leftovers" kinda gal!!