Eggplant Parmesan: Recipe

A few nights ago I made a surprisingly delicious Eggplant Parm. I looked around so many different sites for a recipe and each one was having you deep fry things and make pasta from scratch. I didn’t want to do either, so I made my own recipe, if you will. I posted a picture to Instagram and more than one person asked for the recipe, so alas, here it is! 

This dish takes a little while to prepare because you need to let the eggplant dry out, but I promise you it is worth it in the end. 

Ingredients:
-1 Eggplant
-Pasta sauce (homemade or store bought)
-Low fat mozzarella 
-2 eggs
-1 cup flour
-2 cups italian breadcrumbs
-Salt
-Parmesan

Steps:
1. You need to let the eggplant dry out as much as possible. Cut your eggplant into about 1inch thick pieces and lay them on a cooling rack, cookie sheet, or whatever you want. I used a cooling rack. Liberally salt them. This helps the drying out process. I let mine sit for about 30 mins, then flipped them over and salted the other side. Let sit for another 30 mins. After letting them dry out, I patted mine dry with a paper towel. After you have let them dry, cut off the outer skin. 

2. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and set a cookie/baking sheet inside.

3.Put your flour on a plate, whisk your eggs in a bowl, and place the breadcrumbs on another plate as well. Next, dredge each piece of eggplant in this order: flour, eggs, breadcrumbs. After all pieces are coated, pull the cookie sheet out of the oven and cover with about 4 tablespoons of EVOO, followed by your covered eggplant. Place in the oven for about 30 mins, flipping the eggplant to the other side after 15 mins. Pull out and turn oven to 350 degrees. 

4. After eggplant has cooked, you are going to assemble the eggplant, cheese, and sauce in a baking dish. Do one layer sauce, followed by eggplant, slices of the mozzarella and repeat. Also between layers, I did liberal sprinkles of parmesan cheese. 

5. Place in oven and bake until cheese is melty, about 15 mins. 

Note:
1 eggplant made enough for two people plus leftovers for lunch the next day. If you are feeding more people, up your eggplant count. 
I used store bought pasta sauce for this recipe.