Vatican City - Eggplant Parmiggiano with Fennel and Orange Salad and Garlic Green Beans

November 27, 2025

Vatican City - Eggplant Parmiggiano with Fennel and Orange Salad and Garlic Green Beans

Vatican City is a unique and curious land like no other. Located in the heart of Rome (the capital of Italy), The Vatican is the only independent ‘city-state’ country on Earth to be fully surrounded by another country and also by that country’s capital city. Vatican City is also the smallest country in the World by both population and size. It has no military forces of its own, and yet, this tiny country (which is only the size of 6 football fields), wields significant power because The Vatican is the official home of The Pope (the global leader of the Roman Catholic Church which has over 1.4 billion world-wide followers).

There has been a Pope living in The Vatican for over a thousand years and for most of those years The Pope and the location were both Italian. So, the geography of Vatican City is steeped in centuries of Roman food practices and Italian culture. But that all changed in 1929 when Vatican City became its own independent country. Since then, whilst it has deep roots in Rome, the modern country of Vatican City has had no unifying culinary identity at all. This is because there has been several non-Italian Popes since independence and they have all brought their own food culture with them to the Vatican kitchens including Polish, German, Argentinian, Peruvian and the U.S.A.

Beyond the eclectic private dining rooms of the elected Pope, food in Vatican City is diverse and focused on the different needs of residents and visitors. There are daytime cafeteria and restaurants located inside and outside The Vatican walls that offer Italian menus featuring pizza, risotto, pasta, polenta, panini sandwiches and salads to feed the staff of Vatican City and nourish the masses of hungry pilgrims and tourists who visit The Vatican each day. Then, when The Vatican gates close in the evening, and only a small number of residents (less than 900), remain inside the walls, the menu shifts again. Many of the permeant residents are Swiss Guards assigned to protecting the Pope, and all their meals are prepared by Polish Nuns using local ingredients.

So, from a culinary perspective Vatican City offers surprises around every corner. It’s a place where you could find almost anything cooking in the pot; where key Roman ingredients are married to food practices from across the globe. As such, Vatican City’s cuisine is a culinary mosaic being shaped by the food stories of the ever-changing community behind and outside its walls.

our

VATICAN CITY

menu included

EGGPLANT PARMIGGIANO

with

FENNEL AND ORANGE SALAD

and

GARLIC GREEN BEANS

EGGPLANT PARMIGGIANO

According to culinary legend, Eggplant Parmiggiano is one of the favourite meals of The Pope’s Swiss Guards. If you like lasagne you will love this dish. the recipe makes 12 large serves that just squeeze into an oven-proof dish measuring 30cm long x 20cm wide x 6cm deep. If you only want to feed 6 people you can either cook the whole recipe and freeze half (it freezes, thaws and reheats well), or halve the recipe and reduce the width and length of the baking dish but make sure to use a dish that is still at least 6 cm deep because the recipe has many layers and even when halved it will be just as deep.

Ingredients:

· 1 kg (approximately 2) medium eggplants/aubergine

· 1 small loaf artisan bread cut in 1cm thick slices (see ingredient notes)

· 500 ml extra virgin olive oil (or less is frying eggplant on BBQ)

· 1.25 (5 cups) tomato passata

· 4 large fresh cloves garlic, peeled

· 4-6 fresh basil leaves

· salt and pepper to taste

· 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

· 4 tbs dry mixed herbs (oregano, basil, thyme and rosemary)

· 500 gm fresh mozzarella cheese: half sliced thin, half shredded

· 1 cup grated parmesan Reggiano cheese

· Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Notes:

1/ Artisan bread is handcrafted by bakers using traditional bread-making techniques that focus on long fermentation times and high-quality, simple ingredients. It is typically hand-made in small batches without artificial additives or preservatives and often uses a natural starter (like sourdough).

2/ Don’t be daunted by the fact this recipe has 30+ steps in the method. It is actually quite straight forward and easily achievable by even beginner cooks

Method:

1. Start by preparing the ingredients for the different layers of the dish

2. Wash and dry the eggplant

3. Cut the top stem off then cut eggplant lengthwise into 1 cm thick slices

4. Lay the eggplant slices on a tray and sprinkle all over with salt then set aside for half an hour to allow any bitter water in the veg to be released

5. Whilst the eggplant is resting take the passata and transform it into marinara sauce (see notes at bottom of recipe)

6. Put 3 tbs olive oil into a heavy-based large cooking pot and heat to medium

7. Add the tomato passata, whole peeled garlic, fresh basil leaves, bring to simmer, cover the pot and gently simmer for 1/2 an hour, occasionally stirring the sauce and scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to ensure the sauce doesn’t stick to the bottom and that the concentrated flavours from the bottom of the pot are folded back into the sauce

8. When sauce is finished adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper to taste and use the wooden spoon to crush the soft garlic cloves into the sauce

9. Now rinse the eggplant slices under running water to remove the salt and dry them with kitchen paper or a clean tea towel

10. The next step is to prepare the eggplant for frying

11. Pour the flour into a wide dish and stir in the dried mixed herbs, a tsp salt and 1/4 tsp ground black pepper until well combined

12. Press each slice of eggplant into the seasoned flour until well coated in flour on both sides then set aside on a large platter ready to fry

13. You can either fry the eggplant in a fry pan in plenty of oil, or for a lighter option fry on a flat-top BBQ grill in a small amount of oil. Either way, fry slices on both sides until golden brown – about 5 minutes

14. And now we are ready to construct the dish.

15. Begin by preparing a large deep baking dish by brushing it all over inside with olive oil and proceed as follows in making layers in the dish:

a) cover the bottom with 1/5 of the tomato marinara sauce (about 200 ml)

b) now add half the eggplant slices in an even layer

c) add another 1/5 of the tomato marinara sauce on top

d) now add half the bread slices in an even layer

e) add another 1/5 of the tomato marinara sauce on top

f) now add the thin slices of mozzarella in an even layer

g) cover the mozzarella with half the shredded parmesan

h) now add the remaining eggplant slices in an even layer

i) add another 1/5 of the tomato marinara sauce on top

j) now add the other half of the bread slices in an even layer

k) add the last 1/5 of the tomato marinara sauce on top

l) lastly, mix the shredded mozzarella and remaining half of the shredded parmesan together and spread evenly over the dish

Tip: This recipe can be prepared ahead of time and kept in the fridge giving you time to enjoy family and friends. Just take it out of the fridge a bit before you want to pop it in the oven to allow it time to come up to room temperature

16. Now you are ready to bake the Eggplant Parmiggiano

17. Begin by pre-heating the oven to 200 C

18. Place the dish on the middle rack of the hot oven to cook

19. After 15 mins turn the dish around to ensure an even gold to the crust

20. Continue baking for at least a further 15 minutes (maybe a bit longer,

especially if it was pre-prepared and kept in the fridge before going in

the oven), until the top is golden all over

21. When the dish comes out of the oven its contents are going to be boiling

hot so allow the dish to cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving

RECIPE NOTES:

Passata v Marinara Sauce.

Culinary terms can often be confusing, colonised or mean different things in different places and cultures. Two culinary terms that mean different things in different places and are often confused are Passata and Marinara Sauce.

Passata is a building block foundation ingredient. It is smooth and tomato-rich, but not a finished sauce. It's 100% tomato. It is a raw, purée of cooked, strained tomatoes with the skins and seeds removed. In contrast Italian Marinara is a cooked sauce made from passata with other key ingredients such as garlic, onions, basil, salt, and sometimes other herbs or red pepper.

In Italy, a ‘marinara’ style tomato sauce is often served with seafood but not always. In Australia, marinara is predominantly understood to be fresh seafood such as shellfish in a tomato sauce often served on pasta. But in the US, Marinara is more commonly read as a garlicky tomato sauce for pasta.

FENNEL AND ORANGE SALAD

This recipe looks complicated but it’s really easy to make in a short time because most of the steps are just explaining how to cut up the ingredients.

Ingredients:

· 2 cups arugula/rocket greens or 1 radicchio cut in bite size pieces

· 1 fresh fennel bulb

· 2 ripe oranges

· 100 gm whole, pitted black olives

· 75 ml extra virgin olive oil

· 25 ml lemon juice or balsamic vinegar

· freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Start by preparing the oranges

2. Take a small sharp knife and cut off the peel and pith from the orange and discard that. Then thinly slice the remaining ball of orange fruit crosswise

3. now cut the orange slices in quarters to make triangles and set aside

Note: there will likely be some fresh orange juice that leaks onto the chopping board during steps 2 and 3. If so it’s a great idea to capture that juice by pouring or scrapping it in a container to be added to the salad later

4. Now prepare the fennel by first washing a drying the bulb and its leaves

5. Next step is to cut the stems of the fennel off close to the bulb

6. Save several of the best-looking long leaf branches from the stems to garnish the salad later and put then aside along with a quarter cup of the most delicate leaves picked into small bits to be added to the salad later then discard the remaining tough fennel stems

7. Next step is to cut off the tough part of the bottom of the fennel bulb, discard that then cut the bulb in 1/4s lengthwise to form 4 wedges

8. Now remove most of the hard heart of the bulb wedges with a knife by cutting out a small triangle of the core lengthwise.

9. Then slice the fennel bulb quarters lengthwise into thin crescents that may or may not be joined at some points by some remaining core creating a thin fan like slice of fennel

10. Assemble the salad in a medium/large bowl by combining the fresh salad greens, fennel slices, cracked black pepper to taste, the picked fennel leaves you kept, the black olives, sliced orange quarters and any captured orange juice that was saved at step 3 then toss salad lightly together

11. Drizzle the olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the salad and toss again

12. Garnished with the fennel leaf branches that were put aside in step 6

GARLIC GREEN BEANS

This recipe is flexible. Cook how many beans you need for the number of guests. This volume makes a generous side dish for 4-6 people. Cooking for 10? Just double it

Ingredients:

· 350 gm fresh green beans (or a handful per person)

· 4 large cloves fresh garlic, peeled and crushed

· 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted in a dry pan until golden

· Juice 1 lemon

· 75 ml olive oil

· salt to taste

Method:

1. Wash beans in fresh water and cut off the ends

2. Bring a medium pot of water to the boil, add a tsp salt, bring back to the boil then add in the beans, cooking with the lid off until beans are tender but slightly crunchy, about 5 mins

3. drain the beans through a colander, discard the cooking liquid

4. Use the colander to shake off the excess water from the beans then

throw the beans back into the empty hot pot they were drained from

5. Add the toasted pine nuts, lemon juice, crushed fresh garlic, olive oil and salt to taste into the pot with the hot beans, toss all together and serve

These are all Q-ZINE original recipes informed by multiple sources including but not limited to:

https://www.iexplore.com/articles/travel-guides/europe/vatican-city/food-and-restaurants

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Vatican_City

https://apnews.com/general-news-ccd1d3430ce943d6b7b3a00b1c54fc53

https://www.newsobserver.com/living/food-drink/article10234385.html#storylink=cpy

https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/vatican-cookbook-offers-rare-collection-of-recipes/

https://ethnicfoodsrus.com/around-the-world-recipes/smallest-countries-worldwide-cuisines/vatican-cuisine/?fbclid=IwAR2rxckYICYFUtmfzy-IoiSx0W_Ng-qhA33BAr_b12hEwakpaEtCQwMeZio

https://www.pokpoksom.com/10-most-popular-foods-in-holy-see/

http://vatica.weebly.com/food-and-drinks.html

https://www.inromecooking.com/blog/recipes/roman-recipes-the-panzanella/

https://miaemilia.com/blogs/recipes/the-roman-salad-you-should-try-this-week?srsltid=AfmBOopAePR6uDLppYLk3YQOshVQ46l-

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/16r1kza/comment/k20hoad/