Baked Eggplant Parmigiana
Eggplants from the farmer’s market are gorgeous right now. This is an easy way to serve up a small side of eggplant parmigiana for your whole family.
ingredients:
2 Italian eggplants
flour
2 eggs
breadcrumbs
salt
pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 28 oz can tomatoes
2 teaspoons oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
fresh ground pepper
1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup parmigiana cheese
Slice the eggplant into rounds and sprinkle with salt. Let dry out on paper towels.
Prep your dredging ingredients. On one dish, flour, the next, 2 eggs beaten (add a dash of milk, if you like), the last dish, your breadcrumbs, mixed with some salt and pepper.
After the eggplants are dry (about 30 mins) prep a pan on medium high heat with the olive oil and garlic, don’t let the garlic burn! Dredge the eggplant, going from the flour, to the egg, to the breadcrumbs, into the frying pan. Cook a few minutes until brown, then turn over and brown the other side. Drain on a rack or papertowels and set aside.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, pour in the can of tomatoes, adding the oregano, salt, garlic powder, onion powder and fresh ground pepper. Chop up and mix well. Now you can use a marinara of course, but this is another easy way to throw some ingredients together to make this dish quick and easy.
Using a 2 quart baking dish, lay down half the eggplant slices. Top with the tomato mixture and then half the mozzarella. Lay the rest of the eggplant slices on top of that. Top with the rest of the tomato mixture, the rest of the mozzarella, and then the parmigiana.
Put your baking dish on a baking pan before you put it in the oven, in case it bubbles over. Bake for 30 minutes, and you’re ready to serve.
This is a really nice side dish to pasta, and allows people to serve themself, frankly, making less work for you in the end. Not only that, the baking allows all the flavors to combine in the best possible delicious way.
I love eggplant! And this recipe looks soooo yummy!
Hi Jenn,
A friend of mine gave me a couple of eggplants this morning. It’s a vegetable I hated growing up, but over the years I’ve started liking it on things like pizza. I’ve never made eggplant parmigiana, but I’m going to try your recipe tonight. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Also, I noticed on eHow, it says to salt and put a heavy skillet over the eggplant to press it. I think I’m going to try pressing it down before I bread it.