Saturday, April 16, 2011

Tofu Parmigiana (Italian)



Finally a good way to serve your tofu in a way that actually makes it taste good :). 
I know it's said that it's healthy for you - except if the soy is GM and even if it's not it shouldn't be eaten too often because it totally screws your hormonal balance - but I've always found plain tofu rather... plain. Boring. Maybe the salted one would go if I was really, really hungry, but not even that one. Who wants to eat their salt doses for 3 days in one meal anyway :) ?
But the Tofu Parmigiana recipe does it for me. It's like domesticating the tofu (ha!) :).
A simple treat of breaded tofu shallow fried and then oven-baked with a bit of tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, oregano and olive oil until it gets browned and crispy on the outside and moist and soft on the inside.





Ingredients (serves 2):

  • 250 g tofu (plain, unsalted)
  • 100g salty biscuits (or breadcrumbs)
  • 1 and 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano
  • 150 g grated Parmesan
  • 50 ml tomato sauce (or more if you really hate dry food and you're one of those sauce-addicted kind of people)
  • a pinch of salt
  • olive oil for frying


Smash the biscuits into crumbs. Add salt, oregano and about 2-3 tablespoons of the Parmesan to them:

Cut the tofu into thin slices (1 cm thick). We got 14 slices:

Dunk each slice into the biscuit-Parmesan mix, pressing it well on all sides with your fingers, so it gets coated. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and place the coated tofu slices in it:

After 5-6 minutes gently turn them on the other side (gently, while heated they might break so be extra careful):

When you're done, place them all on a plate and preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Take two heat-proof bowls and place a bit of the remaining crumb mix on the bottom of each:

Continue with a layer of Parmesan, then fried tofu pieces, then another layer of Parmesan:

Drizzle a bit tomato sauce on top, then again crumbs and so on. Just remember the tofu pieces must be sandwiched between Parmesan layers. You can also add the remaining oily crumbs from the frying pan for extra flavor:

Continue until you finish all the ingredients. It's best if you finish with tomato sauce topped with Parmesan. Put in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes. Take out and dig in! :)

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