Eggplant Parmesan ~ A Tutorial

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My dad came to stay with us overnight (he does this often) and he brought with him two large eggplants. He bought them because he wanted to make Eggplant Parmesan, but my mother doesn't like eggplant, so the eggplants waited.... and waited....

So he brought them to my house, and we stopped off at my weekly Wednesday Farmer's Market and picked up 3 more slender ones to go with the two larger ones, and a gallon of Raw Milk.

We adapted this recipe from Whole Foods' Easy Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Ingredients

1 large eggplant, sliced lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick pieces (about eight)
2 eggs, beaten with a fork
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs (sundried tomato or plain) * we used regular breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil*
1 (25-ounce) jar pasta sauce (roasted vegetable or any variety) * we used Prego
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese*
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Method

Preheat oven with a baking sheet inside to 375°F.

First peel and slice your eggplant
**Please note that this recipe does not call for macerating your eggplant. We did not, but you certainly can!**

all nice and sliced. Dad left the peel on some of the sides - don't do this unless you REALLY like the peel

Beat your two eggs with a fork

Proper chef attire is required ;)

Coat eggplant slices with beaten egg, then bread with panko crumbs.

Spread oil on hot baking sheet

and place eggplant slices on it in a single layer.

Ready to go in the oven, Bake 15 minutes

Remove, flip and bake another 10 minutes.

Remove the eggplant from the oven. Increase oven temperature to 475°F.

In an 8 x 10-inch ovenproof dish, layer pasta sauce,

then eggplant,

then Parmesan cheese

then mozzarella cheese.

Repeat, finishing with cheese.

Bake until the cheese melts and turns golden in spots, about 15 minutes. We did this exactly 15 minutes and the cheese came out quite browned. That's ok though! My dad LOVES his cheese toasted! We made this a second time at my parents home, and my mother's stove took almost 30 minutes to achieve a melted cheese appearance.

mmmm.....nice and bubbly!!!

First slice for the boys. I put this in the freezer to quick cool, then divided it in half for them. Not exactly pretty layers, but it was very yummy!! John-Michael at thirds!!
Enjoy!!