Recipe of the day

Preparation: 35 minutes. Cooking: 60 minutes. Serves 4

Glossy purple-skinned aubergines are the meat course for vegetarians. Like mushrooms, which have a similarly chewy texture and complex flavour, they are immensely satisfying and wonderfully versatile. This dish, when long slices of melanzane (Italian for aubergine) are layered in a tomato sauce with thick slices of mozzarella, is enduringly popular all over Italy.

Traditionally, and it's thought that the dish originated in Naples, the aubergine is fried before the layering begins, but the dish is less oily if the slices are cooked on a griddle. Another alternative, which is useful if there is a lot of aubergine to cook, is to use the oven. I find even less oil is then required, but it is important not to crowd the slices on the baking tray, so that they steam rather than bake. What you're after is a golden, almost crusty finish and mushy flesh.

Whichever method of cooking you prefer, the porous flesh will absorb less oil if the slices are purged with salt first. The good thing about this dish and others requiring cooked aubergine slices is that they can be cooked up to 24 hours in advance - longer if you wrap them carefully in clingfilm or foil and keep them in the fridge - thus making this into a super-quick dish to prepare. The combination of soft, slippery yet firm and meaty aubergine with a basil-and-garlic-flavoured tomato sauce and molten mozzarella, the whole dusted with grated Parmesan and cooked until blistered and bubbling, is food for the gods.

Ingredients

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 400F/200C/gas mark 6.

Trim the aubergine and use a large, sharp knife to slice lengthways, about 0.5cm thick.

Sprinkle both sides of the slices with salt and leave to drain in a colander for at least 30 minutes.

Rinse with cold water and shake dry.

Smear a couple of baking sheets/oven trays with olive oil and lay out the slices without crowding.

Use a pastry brush to paint the exposed sides with oil.

Bake for 15 minutes, turn and repeat, juggling positions so all the slices are completely tender.

Meanwhile, add two tablespoons of oil to a frying pan and stir in the tomatoes.

Peel and bruise the garlic, tear the basil and add both to the pan.

Cook briskly for 10-15 minutes until thick and sauce-like.

Slice the mozzarella.

Grease the bottom of a gratin dish with one tablespoon of olive oil.

Cover with slices of aubergine, top with tomato sauce, slices of mozzarella and a dusting of Parmesan. Continue until all the ingredients are used up, finishing with aubergine slices and a final generous covering of Parmesan.

Bake immediately (it could be kept waiting, covered, in the fridge, for up to 24 hours) for about 30 minutes until blistered and bubbling.