A Mediterranean Classic with Ancient Eastern Roots
Eggplant Parmigiana isn’t just a beloved Italian dish — it belongs to a broader Mediterranean tradition of layered eggplant casseroles, all of which trace their deepest roots to Asia.
The eggplant (Solanum melongena), in fact, is native to India and Southeast Asia, where it was cultivated for millennia. Ancient Sanskrit texts record 22 different names for eggplant, a sign of its cultural and culinary importance. From India, it spread westward through Persia and the Islamic world, carried by trade routes and agricultural expansion.
The earliest known recipes using eggplant appear in 9th-century manuscripts from Baghdad, such as Kitāb al-Ṭabīkh, where dishes like badinjan muhassa (mashed eggplant with spices and nuts) were already refined staples of aristocratic kitchens. These recipes then moved across al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) and into Sicily, which was under Arab rule between the 9th and 11th centuries. From there, the eggplant made its way into the broader Mediterranean diet and eventually into Europe.
Within this shared history, Parmigiana di Melanzane is just one chapter. Its close cousins include Greek moussaka, a rich, oven-baked dish with minced lamb and béchamel sauce, and Turkish musakka (Türk usulü musakka), a spiced tomato-based eggplant and meat stew. All three dishes center the eggplant as a versatile and beloved ingredient — transformed differently by each culture but always tied to its eastern ancestry.
Parmigiana, then, is not an isolated Italian invention. It is part of an ancient culinary lineage — a story of how one humble vegetable traveled, adapted, and found a permanent place on Mediterranean tables.
While each version reflects its own local traditions — lamb and cinnamon in Athens, olive oil and peppers in Istanbul, aged cheese and basil in Palermo — they all highlight how the Mediterranean table is shaped by movement, exchange, and adaptation. In that sense, Parmigiana di Melanzane is not an isolated invention, but rather an evolutionary chapter in a much older and broader culinary story.
From India to Sicily: The Eggplant’s Long Journey
The eggplant (Solanum melongena) traces its roots back to India, from where it traveled westward through Persia and the Arab world, reaching Sicily and al-Andalus (southern Spain) by the 8th and 9th centuries. The earliest surviving recipes featuring eggplant — such as badinjan muhassa, a spiced mash of roasted eggplants and walnuts — appear in Baghdad cookbooks like Kitāb al-Ṭabīkh around the 9th century.
By the 13th century, aubergines appeared in Catalan manuscripts, such as the Libre de Sent Soví, and later in cookbooks from Naples and Palermo, reflecting their growing importance in southern European cuisine.
Sicilian farmers and cooks were among the first in Europe to cultivate, prepare, and appreciate eggplant. In contrast, northern Europeans often dismissed it for centuries as bitter, suspicious, or even toxic.
Name? From Bâdinjân to Melanzana
The eggplant’s many names tell the story of its global journey:
Sanskrit: Vatinganah — with 22 different variations recorded in ancient Indian literature.
Persian: Bâdinjân — the root of many modern names in the Middle East.
Arabic: Al-bâdhinjân — the form that entered the Mediterranean via Arab conquests.
Sicilian dialect: Milinciana or Mulignana — preserving clear phonetic echoes of the Arabic term.
Italian: Melanzana, from “mela insana” (“insane apple”) — a reflection of early northern skepticism.
The Italian name — literally “unhealthy apple” — hints at how the plant was received in the North: with suspicion, as a possible cause of indigestion or illness. In the South, especially in Sicily, the eggplant had long been familiar, trusted, and widely used.
One theory links it to the Sicilian word “parmiciana”, which refers to wooden slats of shutters, reminiscent of the layered eggplant slices in the dish — a metaphor rather than a geographic claim.
Our theory is that the name of the plant may have become the name of the dish itself. In traditional societies, where cooking was oral and centered on key local ingredients, this was common practice. Like in archaeology, sometimes we must distance ourselves from modern assumptions — today we imagine a “recipe” as a precise shopping list. But a thousand years ago, recipes were fluid, adaptive, and often named simply for their main ingredient.
In Sicily, the closeness between the product’s name and the dish’s name seems natural. Later, as eggplant reached the markets of Northern Italy, it acquired the name mela insana — not just a label, but a perception, one shaped by the caution Europeans felt toward new members of the nightshade family.
The Parmigiana Without Mozzarella: Sicily’s Original
While Parmigiana di Melanzane is now commonly associated with melted mozzarella and bubbling tomato sauce, that version is a later development. The original form of the dish likely emerged in Sicily, where eggplant was layered with:
- Grated aged cheese (such as caciocavallo or pecorino)
- Tomato sauce or simply seasoned oil
- Fresh basil, and sometimes a hint of garlic
Mozzarella was not part of the early Sicilian versions, as it was not commonly produced or available in the region at the time.
Naples Codifies the Classic
The first documented recipes using the name “alla parmigiana” appear in Naples, notably in Vincenzo Corrado’s Il Cuoco Galante (1773), where he described recipes for zucchini “alla parmigiana.” His successor, Ippolito Cavalcanti, took it further in his 1837 Neapolitan cookbook, describing melanzane a la parmisciana — a dish closely resembling today’s parmigiana but still without mozzarella.
Over time, Naples adopted and enhanced the dish, adding local ingredients like:
- Mozzarella fior di latte
- Tomato ragù or sugo
- Layered eggplant fried in egg and flour (“indorate e fritte”)
This rich, decadent version of parmigiana is the one most widely recognized today — and the one that emigrated abroad with Italian communities in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Northern Italy’s Late Arrival
Despite the dish’s name, there’s no evidence that “Parmigiana di Melanzane” originated in Parma or northern Italy. In fact, northern cookbooks only began featuring eggplant parmigiana in the 19th century, well after it had become a staple in Naples and Sicily.
The term “parmigiana” in the North has historically referred more to the use of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese than to any regional recipe. It’s also worth noting that Parmesan cheese was used and shipped widely before it became a signature of the Emilian identity — much like “French fries” aren’t actually from France.
A Dish Layered in History
From Arab manuscripts to Sicilian gardens, from Neapolitan cookbooks to New York diners, Parmigiana di Melanzane is a culinary chronicle of cross-cultural evolution. Its transformation — from a simple dish of fried eggplants and aged cheese to the gooey, decadent version found on menus worldwide — mirrors the rich, layered history of southern Italy itself.
References & Quotes
-International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences, Published Nov 20, 2020 · R. Sahu, N. Raghuwanshi, Ghanshyam Patel
-Storia della Parmigiana, Gennaro de Gregorio 2008
-G. Devoto G.C. Oli “s.f. preparazione culinaria in cui entra il
formaggio, spesso nella loc. alla p.” 1967 v. II p. 407
Traditional Sicilian Parmigiana Recipe (No Mozzarella)
Here’s a simplified version of the classic Sicilian-style Parmigiana di Melanzane — rustic, bold, and faithful to its oldest roots. This version skips the mozzarella, allowing the eggplant and aged cheese to shine through.
Ingredients (for 4 servings):
- 3 medium eggplants, sliced lengthwise (~1 cm thick)
- 2 cups tomato passata or crushed peeled tomatoes
- 2 cloves garlic
- A few leaves of fresh basil
- 100g aged caciocavallo or pecorino (grated)
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt, to taste
- Optional: a pinch of sugar (if tomatoes are too acidic)
Instructions:
Slice the eggplant: Slice the eggplant finely — this will allow for quicker frying and lighter cooking. Sprinkle the slices with salt and place them in a colander for 30–60 minutes to help draw out excess bitterness and moisture.
✳️ Note: If you’re using homegrown straight from the garden, many modern cultivated eggplants are no longer very bitter. In that case, you can skip the salting step entirely.
Rinse and dry: If you’ve salted them, rinse the slices gently and pat them dry with a clean kitchen towel.
Fry the eggplant: In a pan, heat olive oil and fry the slices until golden on both sides. Thinly sliced eggplant absorbs less oil and cooks faster. We recommend using a 2-year-aged extra virgin olive oil, which maintains flavor without breaking down at frying temperatures.
🫒 You can use other vegetable oils if needed, but if you have the choice, we always recommend high-quality olive oil. Read our article about choosing olive oils →
Make the sauce: In another pan, gently sauté garlic in olive oil. Add tomato passata and fresh basil, then simmer for 15–20 minutes. Season with salt to taste.
Assemble the layers: In a baking dish, begin layering: tomato sauce, eggplant slices, grated aged cheese (like caciocavallo or pecorino), and fresh basil. Repeat until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of sauce and a generous dusting of grated cheese on top.
Bake: Cook in a preheated oven at 180°C (350°F) for 25–30 minutes, until bubbling and lightly browned on the surface.
Let it rest: Allow the dish to rest for 10–15 minutes before serving. It’s even better the next day, once the flavors have had time to deepen and settle.
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