Page 10 - Book-TradiAliCulture-Sicily

Dish History

Here is the history of the aubergine with parmesan or “parmigiana di
melanzane” in Italian. The exact origin of the dish’s name and its nature were
lost over the years, but different theories will help us to situate it in the time.

The aubergine, “melanzana” in Italian, did its first appearance in the
Southern regions of Italy, namely in Sicily, in Calabria and in Naples, in the
1400 years. It has then been introduced in the Northern regions, in Parma,
among others, about the 1500 years. A lot of theories contradict the dish’s name
“aubergine with parmesan” because it was originally a dish from the south and
the parmesan didn’t exist in this region at this time. The most intersting theory is
the following: the name wouldn’t apparently have any connection with the
parmesan cheese referring to the city of Parma, but it would be of a linguistic
deformation of “palmigiana”, that means “shutters”, namely window shutters to
which aubergine slices are supposed to resemble. As the Sicilians have difficulty
to pronounce the “L” letter, it sounds like “parmigiana”. In brief, this dish
historically wouldn’t contain any cheese at all.

There are some little interesting differences between the traditional
recipes of Naples, Sicily and Parma. In Naples, in Campania, the aubergines are
coated with light breadcrumbs before being fried, which prevents them of
sweating too much oil, and the cheese used was the mozzarella from two days
before, that is drier. In Sicily, the aubergines are not coated with breadcrumbs,
so the oil spills in the sauce and hard-boiled eggs slices are added. Furthermore,
the Sicilians use “caciocavallo” (a typical cheese) in slices or parmesan. In
Parma, the aubergine is often cut in slices, it is then fried in oil. The cheeses
used are mozzarella and parmesan.

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