Leaning Tower of Eggplant

ROBERTA: Since five out of the six of us are headed to the New England Crimebake in Deadham, MA this weekend, I thought I'd leave you with a recipe. At a recent dinner out with girlfriends to the Guilford, CT Bistro, we were treated to an amazing eggplant appetizer. Two towers of fried eggplant were interspersed with sliced tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. And then curlicues of arugula were arranged on top with a spritz of balsamic vinaigrette over all.

I just happened to have a few white eggplants and a few lingering
heirloom tomatoes from the tail end of the garden, so I decided to try
to recreate the leaning tower of eggplant for my husband.

Unfortunately, I didn't read instructions about how to fry eggplant
until right before I started the dinner. So too late to soak the
eggplant in milk for 2 hours, I took the Sicilian mama's suggestion
about slicing it lengthwise and salting. Once the liquid beaded on the slices, I washed and dried them, then dipped in egg, followed by flour. I used peanut oil for frying. when the slices were all nicely
browned, I layered them with fresh mozz slices and the tomatoes on a bed of greens. Then sprinkled arugula and vinaigrette over the top.
Truly delicious! the only bad part will be the lingering smell of
frying...and the fact that it's all gone...