Today was a surprisingly good day! Despite the fact that my headache never went away, I managed to get a lot of reading done and have a great class (we talked about land titling and home ownership which for some reason I think is a really interesting topic).
I got home this evening slightly hungry but excited to make this dish. As usual, I found this recipe for Eggplant Parmesan a LOOOONG time ago, bookmarked it and decided to make it now.
Baked Eggplant Parmesan
adapted from Eggs on Sunday’s Eggplant Parmesan
1 eggplant, sliced
1 egg
1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 can of diced tomatoes (plain or Italian seasoned works too)
1/2 an onion, chopped
1 tsp chopped garlic
1/2 tbsp olive oil
Cayenne to taste (I used about 1/4 tsp)
1 cup ricotta
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
1 tbsp fresh chopped basil (more if you’d like)
A few slices of fresh mozzarella
I’ve never really cooked eggplant, so this was a first for me. My sister’s friend once told me to put a lot of salt on eggplant and let it sit for a while then rinse it and pat dry, but I wasn’t really sure what that meant. This recipe confirmed…
Heavily salt the sliced eggplant on both sides, let stand for 15-20 minutes. Then rinse and pat dry. It doesn’t yield salty eggplant, just reduced the water content, which apparently tastes better?
After you’ve salted, rinsed and dried your eggplant you need to bread it. Put one egg (beaten) in a shallow bowl. In another bowl, combine bread crumbs italian seasoning and parmesan cheese.
Dip each slice into the egg then into the bread crumb mixture and place on a greased baking sheet.
Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, flip and baked for another 15 minutes.
In the meantime, make your sauce. Heat the oil, add the onions, garlic and cayenne and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add the can of diced tomatoes and cook for about 15-20 minutes until liquid has reduced and sauce is thick. In the meantime, combine the ricotta, basil and parmesan in a bowl, set aside.
When the eggplant is ready and your sauce is reduced, you are ready to assemble it all!
Pour 1/3 of the sauce into the bottom of a baking dish.
Next do a layer of eggplant slices.
Then spread on all the ricotta mixture.
Then the next 1/3 of your sauce and the rest of the eggplant slices.
Finish off with the remaining sauce and the mozzarella. I went kind of light on the cheese since I figured the huge amounts of ricotta was plenty of cheese!
Bake at 425 for about 15-20 minutes. Serve and enjoy! Makes 4 good sized servings! I wish I had a broiler because bubbly burnt cheese is delicious! If you make this I would suggest putting it under the broiler for a few minutes for crispy goodness!
DELICIOUS!
Perfect ending to my day! I love the crispiness of the eggplant without the oiliness of typical fried eggplant parmesan!
Are you an eggplant fan?
Tonight, I really want to catch up on Lost since I didn’t get to watch it last night! I’m also considering making some granola bars for good afternoon snacks to have on hand. What are your relaxation plans for the evening??
Have a great night!
Foodologie 
I’ve actually never had eggplant before! I guess I just don’t know what to do with it. I saved this recipe to try sometime. Looks amazing 🙂
I looooooooooooove eggplant and eggplant parmesan is one of the best ways I love eggplant! 🙂 I’m going to make this, soon! I’ve never had eggplant parm with ricotta in it, fascinating. hehe
Relaxation this evening? 6 cats, sick hubby, blog and other work? Not happening. 😦 lol
Jenn
i do love eggplant. i just can’t seem to make it taste good at home!
love this meal!! it’s great! it has all my favorite ingredients!!! I’m saving it for later! 😉
I am not specially fan of eggplant, but for some italian dishes… it’s great!
I love eggplant! BUT, I do hate the way that it usually comes sopping in oil in restaurants– this looks so delicious and NOT greasy at all!
this looks delish! thanks for sharing!
I like eggplant most of the time- I made my 1st eggplant parm a few weeks ago! I LOVE the idea of the ricotta in the eggplant parm- kinda a cross between parm and lasagna..how could you go wrong there?! 🙂
I’ve always wanted to make eggplant parmesan! This looks amazing! I love eggplant but only when it’s cooked properly. Once I had it undercooked and didn’t like it. It was spongy and dry, not my thing. My favorite way to have it is vegetarian moussaka!
These look so good! Eggplant has such a fun texture that I love.
I hope your headache’s gone by now.
I am in love with eggplant. Except it has to be a little mushy for me to enjoy it (not firm lol)
The eggplant parm looks amazing 😀
YUMM!!! That loooks so amazingly delish! 🙂 My relaxing plans for the evening are to hit up my favorite cardio kickboxing class then chillax with a book and maybe a glass of vino. 🙂
I do love eggplant! And I love that you bake this recipe. We fried eggplant once… it was good but took FOREVER!
My hubby LOVES eggplant parm. I have only made it once though–guess I should be nice and surprise him with it! Looks wonderful!
YUM! I like eggplant, but only sometimes…I don’t know, kind of wierd. 🙂
This looked amazing and my husband loves eggplant so I tried it out tonight! It was a WINNER! You’ve helped me make dinner two nights in a row, I owe you big time!!!
Thank you for the recipe. The step-by-step pictures were tremendously helpful. When I prepared it for a church potluck, it was devoured within minutes! Many thanks!