Egplant parmigiana: when I used to live abroad, it was one of myculinary cavalli di battaglia. Simple to make enough to be thrown together on a weeknight, yet full of Italian va-va-voom. Eggplant, a staple of our national cuisine and, more in general, a key ingredient across the Mediterranean, isn’t as popular 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 balance between decadent fried eggplant, fresh tomato sauce and basil, and creamy mozzarella cheese, all topped perfectly with the tanginess of parmigiano.