This delicious dish involves lovely aubergine slices that are coated in a parmesan and herb breadcrumb mix, firstly fried in a little olive oil then baked to cook through. Serve simply with a delicious simple tomato sauce and rocket salad. Amazing!

One suggestion for this dish would be to use proper tomatoes. I don’t mean a can of value tomatoes, sure they’re fine but save them for your spag bol.  It seriously makes the world of difference, so try and find a really good make and save them for a dish like this, where you really want to taste the flavour. I mean, we even get them imported from Italy (no joke, I feel sorry for our neighbour who takes the package in when we’re not home). You hardly even need to season them they are that good. OK, you don’t need to go to those lengths BUT when they are that tasty I could just eat a bowl of tomatoes, gently heated with some olive oil, garlic and some good sourdough.

Recipe (Serves 4)

2 large aubergines, topped and tailed and cut into 1cm slices length ways – not too thick, but not too thin (should make 8)

4 tbsp flour

3 eggs

3 slices of slightly stale white bread

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 dried basil

50g grated paremsan

salt and pepper

5 tbsp good olive oil

1 jar of GOOD tomatoes

1 large fat juicy clove of garlic, crushed

Rocket leaves

Juice of half a lemon

Heat your oven to 180c.

Put the flour into a shallow bowl, the eggs into another and the breadcrumbs into the final. Whisk up the eggs and season both the breadcrumbs and flour. Add the grated parmesan to the breadcrumbs, along with oregano and basil.

Heat up a frying pan with 1 tbsp of the olive oil. Coat the aubergine slices firstly in the seasoned flour, then the egg and finely coat well in the breadcrumbs. Fry 2 aubergine slices at a time, so not to over crowd the pan. Cook on each side for 2 minutes until golden brown. Add a new tbsp of olive oil each time you fry a new batch, as the aubergines will soak up the oil. Place onto a wire rack on a baking tray. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes to cook through.

While the aubergine slices bake, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a sauce pan and gently fry the garlic for a minute. Add in your tomatoes and cook until thickened and slightly reduced.

Toss the rocket in the lemon juice and stack onto our serving plates.

Serve two slices of the aubergine along with the rocket and the tomato sauce served on the side. So good!