Sweat The Eggplant

I love eggplant parmesan. There are tons of great recipes out there, so I won’t trouble you with mine. However, only one of them recommends that you sweat the eggplant before getting started, and to me that’s the one thing you must do when cooking eggplant.

Large eggplants have a lot of liquid in them. Green, bilious, bitter liquid. If you leave it in your eggplant, you’re missing out on how great an eggplant can taste. Once you’ve sweated your eggplant and actually see, and perhaps dare taste, the liquid, you’ll understand why you don’t want it in your dish.

It’s really easy to sweat an eggplant. I put mine on a baking rack, salt one side liberally with sea salt, flip them over, salt the other side liberally with sea salt, and let them sit for at least 30 minutes. At that point, you’ll understand what I mean about the unappetizing liquid which appears.

Close up, it’s even worse:

Once they’ve been sweated, I rinse the eggplant to remove the bitter liquid and the excess salt. Then I place them between paper towels and press them gently with a rolling pin to remove any excess water. At this point, they’re ready for use in your recipe, and they’re ready to impress you with how great a properly sweated eggplant can taste.