Melanzane a Funghetto, Fried Eggplant in Tomato Sauce

Melanzane a Funghetto is a Neapolitan summer dish. It's made with pieces of fried eggplant served in a quick and simple cherry tomato sauce with garlic and basil. It's easy to make and packed with flavour, solid served as a side dish, with pasta or with some crusty bread.

Quick recipe snapshot

• Traditional Neapolitan recipe that's full of flavour!
• Made using a few fresh seasonal ingredients.
• Versatile: serve as an antipasto, side dish or pasta sauce.
• Vegetarian and easy to prepare.

Melanzane a Funghetto translates as 'eggplant mushroom style', and as confusing as it sounds, the name actually refers to the shape and size of the eggplant. We also think that once fried, eggplant can have a similar texture to a mushroom, which is probably another reason behind the name.

This traditional dish can be found in the Campania region of Italy, specifically Naples and is often eaten in summer.

It's good as a side dish or served with pasta (similar to Pasta alla Norma), but we personally love it on top of some lightly toasted, crusty bread.

Ingredient notes

• Eggplant (aubergine) – use either 1 large eggplant or 2 small ones. Try to get fresh and ripe ones without much bruising.
• Tomatoes – use either cherry tomatoes or baby plum tomatoes, as we have. The sauce is sweet and good!
• Fresh basil – only fresh basil will do here, we wouldn't use dried, although dried oregano would be a nice alternative.
• Garlic – Traditionally, the garlic is kept whole, then removed at the end of cooking. If you'd like a stronger garlic flavour, you can finely chop or mince it instead.
• Oil for frying – This comes down to personal preference a lot of the time. We use sunflower oil for deep frying, but you can use a light olive oil or other flavourless oil such as vegetable.

Recipe tips

Salting the eggplant – We tested this recipe with and without salting first and found that too much oil is absorbed if you don't salt it first, so we highly recommend it.

Fry in batches – We recommend frying the eggplant in small batches without overcrowding the pan. If too much is added, it'll lower the temperature of the oil too quickly, and the eggplant will take longer to brown (soaking up more oil).

Drain the eggplant – Have a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain the eggplant straight after frying. This will help absorb any excess oil.

Cooking the sauce – the sauce is not cooked for long (10-15 minutes max). The trick is not to let the tomatoes dry out too much during cooking. If this happens, add some water and cook it down for a minute or two until it's back to a saucy consistency.

Variations – you can switch up the flavour by adding in fresh or dried chillies for heat, dried oregano or fresh parsley. It's a great way to change the flavour depending on what your serving it with.

Serving suggestions

On crostini – Melanzane a Funghetto is good served with some char-grilled, crusty bread. We love to mix ricotta with some lemon zest and spread that on first before adding the eggplant, good!

As a pasta sauce – cook some pasta al dente, then stir it through the eggplant. You can enjoy it warm or at room temperature…so good!

As a side dish – this is good served as a side dish to meat and fish. We love it with salmon.

On pizza – this might not be traditional, but we added some leftover eggplant to homemade pizza with tomato and mozzarella and it was good! We added some pesto after baking.

More good ways to use eggplant

Parmigiana di Melanzane is a reader favourite and one of our all-time favourite dishes, the lasagna is also a must-make…it's so good!

Mains

Eggplant Parmigiana (Parmigiana di Melanzane)

Pasta

Pasta Alla Norma (Eggplant Pasta)

Mains

Eggplant Rollatini with Spinach and Ricotta

Antipasti

Sicilian Eggplant Caponata

Ingredients

Makes 4 - 6 servings

• 1 large eggplant ((or 2 small))
• 1 lb (450g) cherry tomatoes (cut in half)
• 2 whole garlic cloves (peeled)
• 1/4 cup (60ml) 60ml water
• Small handful fresh basil leaves
• Salt
• Olive oil
• Sunflower oil for frying ((or flavourless oil of choice))

Method

1. Trim and cut the eggplant (1 large or 2 small) into medium sized cubes and place in a colander. Sprinkle the eggplant with salt and leave to drain for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

2. Squeeze out any excess liquid as best as you can with your hands then pat the eggplant dry with kitchen paper.

3. Heat 1 inch deep of sunflower oil (or frying oil of choice) in a medium sized pan. Once hot, fry the eggplant in batches until golden brown then set aside on a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain.

To make the sauce

1. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a pan and sauté the 2 whole garlic cloves until lightly golden.

2. Add 1lb or 450g of sliced cherry tomatoes and sauté until they start to break down. Add 1/4 cup (60ml) of water a small handful of torn basil leaves and a good pinch of salt and pepper to the sauce, let it simmer for 10 minutes, don't let the sauce dry out.

3. Add the eggplant to the sauce and let it simmer for another 5 minutes.

4. Remove the garlic before serving then serve warm or at room temperature.

Kitchen notes

Prep ahead this recipe tastes even better the next day. You can prep it the day before and store it in the fridge.

Storage will keep well in the fridge for 3 days. The recipe can be doubled if needed.