Mushroom aubergines is a Neapolitan summer dish. It’s made with pieces of fried eggplant served in a really quick and simple cherry tomato sauce with garlic and basil. It’s easy to make and packed with flavour, perfect 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 just a few fresh seasonal ingredients.
- Super versatile: serve as an antipasto, side dish or pasta sauce.
- Vegetarian and easy to prepare.
Mushroom aubergines translates as ‘eggplant mushroom style’, and as confusing as it sounds, the name actually refers to the shape and size of the eggplant. I 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 delicious as a side dish or served with pasta (similar to Pasta alla Norma), but I personally love it on top of some lightly toasted, crusty bread.
Ingredient Notes
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- 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 delicious!
- Fresh basil – only fresh basil will do here, I 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. I 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 – I tested this recipe with and without salting first and found that too much oil is absorbed if you don’t salt it first, so I highly recommend it.
Fry in batches – I 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
Is crossini – Melanzane a Funghetto is delicious served with some char-grilled, crusty bread. I love to mix ricotta with some lemon zest and spread that on first before adding the eggplant, really delicious!
AS The Sauce Folder – 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 really delicious served as a side dish to meat and fish. We love it with salmon.
On pizza – this might not be traditional, but I added some leftover eggplant to homemade pizza with tomato and mozzarella and it was delish! I added some pesto after baking.
More delicious ways to use eggplant
Parmigiana di Melanzane is a reader favourite and one of my all-time favourite dishes, the lasagna is also a must-make…it’s so good!
If you’ve tried this Neapolitan fried eggplant recipe or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest or sign up to our Newsletter to see more of our delicious food.
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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.
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Squeeze out any excess liquid as best as you can with your hands then pat the eggplant dry with kitchen paper.
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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
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Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a pan and sauté the 2 whole garlic cloves until lightly golden.
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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.
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Add the eggplant to the sauce and let it simmer for another 5 minutes.
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Remove the garlic before serving then serve warm or at room temperature.
Storage – will keep well in the fridge for 3 days. The recipe can be doubled if needed.
Helpful Info for All Recipes
- I always use extra virgin olive oil in all of my recipes unless stated otherwise
- When I use canned or jarred tomatoes of any kind I always use Cirio or Mutti brands for the best results and flavour.
- All vegetables are medium sized unless stated otherwise
- All recipes are tested and developed using a fan (convection) oven
- Find out more about how nutrition is calculated.
- Check out our must have Italian Pantry Staples.
- You can also find all our Essential Kitchen Tools for Italian Cooking.
Calories: 206kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 15g | Sodium: 15mg | Potassium: 513mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 577IU | Vitamin C: 29mg | Calcium: 25mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.