Editor’s note: The theme of Gohan Lab is to help people make simple, tasty “gohan” (meals).

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We're capping off our series on the eggplant with a recipe for grilled eggplant layered with tomato sauce and cheese, a popular home-cooked southern Italian dish, according to chef Kuniaki Arima, who oversaw the recipe's cooking aspect.

We've chosen to use “bei-nasu,” an improvement on an American variety of eggplant for the dish. Since the skin and texture of this eggplant are firm, it's less likely to lose shape when simmered and is also suited for pan-frying or grilling.

One key is to pour small amounts of oil into the pan in a circular motion as you're cooking. When the eggplant's spongy flesh absorbs the oil, its water content is simultaneously replaced by the oil, allowing the eggplant to end up absorbing a large amount of oil.

You should add oil little by little since if you pour in a large amount at once, the oil that the eggplant could not absorb will become sticky. When everything works out and the dish is nicely grilled, a sweet and savory aroma will fill the kitchen.

The arranged version is a take on lasagna, using bread instead of pasta. The bread absorbs the juice of the meat sauce and oil of the eggplants to create a filling dish. Though we use the round firm-textured “maru-nasu," which is suited to pan-frying and grilling, you can make the dish with “bei-nasu” as well.

EGGPLANTS FOR GOOD LUCK

A well-known proverb associated with the eggplant is “Ichi Fuji, ni taka, san nasubi,” literally “First Mount Fuji, second hawk, third eggplant,” depicting the three symbols that suggest good luck if they appear in your first dream in the new year.

Another is “Aki nasu wa yome ni kuwasuna,” meaning “Do not feed the fall eggplant to the daughter-in-law” either because “it tastes too good” or “it's too cooling.”

Some other proverbs featuring the eggplant have fallen into disuse. One example is “Nasu to otoko wa kuroinoga yoi,” meaning “Eggplants and men with dark skin tone are better,” according to Masamizu Tokita, who compiled “Iwanami Kotowaza Jiten,” a dictionary on proverbs.

The saying suggests that eggplants with dark skin are fresher and tanned men are healthier.

“It probably reflects the notion of praising tanned workers who work tirelessly outdoors,” Tokita says. As the number of agricultural workers has dropped and society has become more diverse, people may have stopped using the proverb.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

(Supervised by Kuniaki Arima in the cooking aspect and Midori Kasai in the cookery science aspect)

* Ingredients (Serve two)

1 eggplant (“bei-nasu” variety), 200 grams flesh portion of canned tomatoes, 10 basil leaves, 30 grams grated cheese (or powdered cheese), little less than 1/2 tsp each of salt and sugar, 1/2 clove garlic, 50 to 80 ml olive oil

About 335 kcal and 2.2 grams salt per portion

1. Cut calyx from eggplant and peel in stripes. Cut into 1.5-cm thick round slices.

2. Rub cut section of garlic in frying pan. Place on medium heat, pour olive oil in two circular motions and lay in eggplant slices. Add olive oil in small portions as needed while frying. When slices have turned brown, turn and cook in the same manner (PHOTO A). Sprinkle in a bit of salt (not listed above) while slices are still hot.

3. Add salt and sugar to the flesh portion of canned tomatoes and mix to make sauce (PHOTO B).

4. Spread some tomato sauce on heat-proof dish, lay in eggplant, tomato sauce and basil in this order so they partially overlap (PHOTO C). Top with grated cheese and bake in toaster until cheese melts and turns brown.

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Kuniaki Arima is the owner-chef of Passo a Passo, an Italian restaurant in Tokyo’s Fukagawa.

Midori Kasai is a professor emerita at Ochanomizu University and former chairwoman of the Japan Society of Cookery Science.

ARRANGED VERSION

Eggplant lasagna-style (Serves two)

Have two thin slices of bread marketed with the label “For sandwiches.” Finely chop 80 grams onion, 50 grams carrot and 1/2 clove garlic. Pour bit of olive oil in frying pan and sautee garlic, onion and carrot. Add 50 grams of juice from canned tomatoes and 200 grams of mixture of grated beef and pork. Loosen grated meat and simmer.

Season with 1 and 1/2 Tbsp miso and a bit of nutmeg and mix. Cook 1 “maru-nasu” as in the gratin. In a heat-proof container, lay meat sauce, bread and eggplant in this order twice, top with 30 grams of grated cheese and brown in a toaster.

COOKERY SCIENCE

There are many gaps between the cells in the flesh of the eggplant, making it sponge-like. When the gaps are squashed through cooking, the volume is reduced and the flesh becomes dense. When the eggplant is sauteed or deep-fried, it absorbs a large amount of oil and turns thick, smooth and rich. If you want to reduce the amount of oil it absorbs, it's better to preheat the eggplant in the microwave oven for a short time to reduce the gaps.

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The column, translated from The Asahi Shimbun’s Gohan Lab column, will next appear on Aug. 25.