This Eggplant Parmesan is, apparently, labor-inducing magic.

If you’re pregnant and at full term (39 weeks), there’s an Italian restaurant that serves an Eggplant Parmesan that could help you go into labor, or so say hundreds of women. Too good to be true? Probably. I was certainly a skeptic. But it didn’t keep me from being curious!

The best part? They have the recipe up on their website so you don’t have to go to Georgia to have your baby!

Please note: If you are not expecting a baby, this recipe won’t make you go into labor. That’s good news, so everyone can enjoy this dish.

What’s the deal with this Eggplant Parmesan?

Down in Cobb County, Georgia, this Italian restaurant, Scalini’s, has their walls lined with photos of women and their babies, hundreds of them. What do they have in common? They all ate Scalini’s famous Eggplant Parmesan within 48 hours of going into labor. You can visit their site here and read some of the moms’ testimonies.

We know it can’t be the restaurant or their atmosphere, since the recipe is online and many moms from all over have made this and have their own Eggplant Parmesan babies!

By now I can’t even remember how I first came across this story. In fact, you may already know about it, it’s been on What to Expect, Today’s Parent, and others.

It seemed comically incredible to me, and I immediately decided I would have to make this a bit later on in my pregnancy. I of course gave no stock to its magical labor powers, reading the testimonies it seemed like a lot of coincidences. If you’re past your due date and you go into labor, uh, sorry but how do you know it was the eggplant? Chances are you would’ve gone into labor anyway! Or so I was inclined to think. But like eating spicy food, dancing, curb-walking, and any other means a woman might resort to for getting labor going, it seemed harmless and fun, one more thing to try. And I think women like to actively get labor on because not only are we uncomfortable and can’t wait to meet baby, but we also like to feel like we’re doing something and not just sitting around like…glowing whales?

My Eggplant Parmesan Labor Story

One fine September eve when I was 40+3 weeks pregnant I decided it was time to have some fun and try this parmigiana. It had only reached about 90°F/32°C that day, so naturally the first thing I decided to do would be to turn on the oven.

The whole making of this dish took me longer than I anticipated, so many eggplant slices! So after several hours on my feet in a hot kitchen I was feeling quite tuckered out. I had had plans with my husband to go out for our nightly passeggiata and it kept getting later and later. Finally the parmigiana was out of the oven and ready, so good. Worth it!

I later went out onto our little patio to cool down in the evening air and make some calls. No one answered, and I had this strange forlorn feeling, like something was about to happen and I couldn’t get ahold of anyone. My mom eventually called me back, and we laughed and talked until late. I had started having some more regular Braxton-Hicks shortly before and during the call, and I joked that maybe I should start practicing with my pregnancy app contraction timer so the first time I’m not trying to use it is in actual labor.

We hung up at almost 1am my time, on the premise that I should sleep. On reentering the apartment I saw the parmigiana again and had to eat another couple bites. I had barely laid down when I felt what was unmistakably a real contraction. Some more ensued and I started keeping track for real on the contraction timer. They were coming regularly and the more I moved the faster and harder they came. I didn’t get a wink of sleep as a contraction would wake me up anytime my eyes started to close, and eventually my body decided to evict all of the Eggplant Parmesan. A few hours later we were at the hospital. Almost exactly 24 hours after eating this Eggplant Parm my son was born. Am I believer now? I just might be, or yet another coincidence…

What is Eggplant Parmesan?

An Italian dish known as Parmigiana di Melanzane or often simply parmigiana, it consists of layers of deep fried eggplant, tomato sauce, and cheese. It’s as heavy and wonderfully delectable as it sounds.

Eggplant Parmesan is a rather labor intensive dish (no pun intended!). The eggplants need to be salted and sit for an hour, the marinara sauce needs to simmer for an hour, then there is the breading and frying of the eggplant, and the actual assembly and baking. To make things easier you can make the marinara ahead. You can also make the whole dish ahead of time, it makes for wonderful leftovers OR you can refrigerate it or freeze it before baking. One Italian recipe I was reading even went as far as to claim that time itself was one of the most important ingredients for an unbeatable parmigiana, time for the flavors to meld after it’s assembled and baked.

This particular recipe is a family recipe from Scalini’s restaurant. From what I know of Parmigiana, this is pretty close to the original dish, albeit slightly Americanized. I don’t mean that scathingly, as not everything that’s not the original is automatically bad. Often people tend to fall on two sides of this “issue.” They don’t know/don’t care what the difference is, or they’re righteously indignant that a restaurant could call itself Italian and serve, say, Fettuccine Alfredo. I do, however, think it’s important to understand what the original dish is meant to be, while appreciating that it may evolve into something different, especially as it’s served in different countries over the years. An Italian restaurant in Italy is naturally going to be different than an Italian restaurant in America, each having different clientele, differing availability of ingredients. This being a family recipe handed down in an Italian immigrant family, I’m sure they know the following stuff better than I!

That said, the main differences between the classic recipe and this one, are the following:

In Italy the eggplants in parmigiana are typically deep fried: I’ve mostly seen them fried as is, but some do batter in flour, egg, or both before frying. Scalini’s batters in flour, egg, and bread crumbs, but only directs to sauté.
The marinara usually would be simmered with salt, pepper, and onion, with fresh basil added in the last few minutes. Scalini’s uses oregano and several other spices. This right here is often what tips me off to an “Americanized” dish: we love to add more spice, more cheese, etc. Again, it’s not wrong, just different. I happen to think both ways can be delicious.
Scalini’s uses a generous amount of ricotta alongside parmesan and romano, the classic usually calls for just Parmigiano and mozzarella, although some use caciocavallo and yet others use provolone or a scamorza bianca.

In other Italian recipes for Parmigiana di Melanzane I’ve seen some of the following suggestions:

As far as the classic recipe goes, you can leave the skin on the eggplant, peel it, or peel it in stripes, depending on your preference. I recommend leaving it on for 3 main reasons: The skin is where most of the nutrients are, where most of the flavor and texture is, and it’s easier to leave it on.
Choose firm, ripe, dark purple globe eggplants.
While this recipe doesn’t specify, it’s often recommended to remove some of the extra water from the fresh mozzarella as well. Simply squeeze the mozzarella between paper towels until the paper towels remain mostly dry. This could be skipped if you choose a drier cheese such as caciocavallo or provolone in place of the mozzarella. Others recommend using a mozzarella closer to its expiration date, when it has naturally lost some of its water. (See note below though, as it may be why Scalini’s doesn’t say to remove the water.)
Some recipes in Italian say to layer in this order: eggplant, mozzarella, sauce, parmesan. They say finishing with mozzarella on top may cause it to become too dry and burn. You’ll notice this recipe finishes with mozzarella only on top. I didn’t have problems with the mozzarella burning, but I also didn’t remove too much water from the mozzarella first so that could be why.

The recipe below is Scalini’s exact recipe, to best preserve its baby’s-a-comin’ magic. Some of the directions I may have re-worded to make them a bit more clear. You’ll also find my usual recipe notes at the bottom, some of the questions I came across while making this and ideas to make things easier.

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Eggplant Parmesan alla Scalini’s

Serves about 8-12

Ingredients:

For the Eggplant Parmesan

3 medium eggplants, washed
1 cup / 120g flour
6 eggs, beaten
4 cups / 400g fine Italian bread crumbs, seasoned
olive oil for sautéing
8 cups marinara sauce, recipe below
2 cups / 500g ricotta cheese
1/2 cup / 50g grated Romano cheese
1/2 cup / 50g grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 lb / 227g fresh mozzarella, grated

For Scalini’s Marinara Sauce

3 Tbsp / 42g olive oil
1 cup onion, chopped
2 Tbsp chopped garlic
8 cups chopped tomatoes, fresh or canned
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/8 cup chopped fresh sweet basil
pinch of thyme
pinch of rosemary
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Directions:

Make the Eggplant Parmesan:

Oven preheated to 375°F / 190°C. 9x13in / 23x33cm or similar size baking dish.

Slice the eggplant into 1/4in / 1/2cm slices.
Line eggplant slices on paper towels. Lightly salt them, cover with more paper towels, and place something heavy on top of them. This will drain excess moisture. Allow to sit for about an hour.
When the hour is up, heat a small amount of oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Take one slice of eggplant and dip in flour, then dip in beaten eggs, then dredge in breadcrumbs. Place in hot pan and cook on each side until golden brown. Repeat with remaining slices of eggplants, adding more oil to pan as needed.
In the baking dish, spread enough marinara sauce to generously cover the bottom. Add a layover of eggplants, then spread some ricotta, Romano, and Parmesan cheese over eggplants. Repeat layers until within about 1/8in / 1/4cm from the top.
Evenly sprinkle mozzarella over top.
Bake for about 25 minutes or until hot and bubbling. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Make the Marinara Sauce

In a large pot over medium heat, lightly sauté onions in oil for a few minutes.
Add garlic and cook for another minute.
Add tomatoes and bring to a boil.
Turn heat to low and add remaining ingredients; stir and cover. Simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Jenny’s Notes:

Scalini’s recipe doesn’t specify what size baking dish to use, so I guessed. I halved this recipe and used an 8x8in / 20x20cm baking dish and ended up with quite a few eggplant slices leftover. I did not halve the marinara recipe and made the full 8 cups, hoping to have leftover. However I didn’t have much leftover. If you’re making the full 9x13ish recipe above, you might want to consider making more than 8 cups sauce. Any leftovers you can use on pasta, as a dip for breadsticks or garlic bread, on pizza, or anything else you like marinara on.
The hour that the eggplant is sitting and sweating is a good moment to make the marinara. Then the marinara can simmer for its hour while you start frying the eggplant. Otherwise you can make the marinara sauce 1-2 days ahead.
Cup and Tbsp measurements are a bit less common than indicating the amount of vegetable/fruit, 1 onion, 1/2 an onion, etc. If you don’t feel like measuring the onion and garlic, I used 1 medium-large onion and 6 garlic cloves and it turned out great.
Seasoned Italian breadcrumbs are not a thing in Italy, only plain breadcrumbs exist, so that is what I used. I could have added a bit of dried oregano, basil, parsley, garlic and onion powder to make my own Italian breadcrumbs, but I opted not to since the marinara is already quite generously spiced.
I ended up needing quite a bit more flour and even breadcrumbs than called for, this will all depend on the size of your eggplants. The important part here is making sure all the eggplant slices get breaded rather than following the recipe precisely.
When it comes to sautéing the eggplant, you may want to use 2 pans simultaneously to fry them up, to make it go quicker. Otherwise, you could choose to deep fry them as is traditional (but use a frying oil such as refined peanut oil, not olive oil for deep frying) or bake them. I baked some of mine and thought it worked nicely and saved a lot of time. I’ve also read of Italians grilling the eggplant for a lighter version.
1/8in seems like a very close and precise measurement for filling the baking dish, you can play it by, uh, eye, and stop where you feel comfortable. I left a touch more space so the marinara wouldn’t bubble over while baking.