Monday, September 6, 2010

Eggplant Parmesan!

Tonight I made something that Paul and I have made a couple times before and now I want to share it with you! The recipe is inspired by Simply Recipes and you can find it here.

This is what I used:


The star of the show!


I got this baby at the Farmer's Market on Saturday. The recipe says to cut them into sections the long way but I cut the eggplant into rounds, which is MUCH easier.


Now the next step is very important if you don't want soggy eggplant, and no one wants that.

Lay your eggplant slices onto paper towels in a colander and sprinkle with salt.


Lay another paper towel on top and then squish them to death with as many heavy dishes as you can!


Usually I have Paul stand on them between two cutting boards, but due to an ocean separating us, I had to make do.

The recipe says to let them squish for about 2 hours but I don't have that kind of time. I let them squish for about 1/2 an hour and then squished them individually to get out the excess water.


Next, get some oil hot in a pan. Then drudge your eggplant slices through some flour/bread crumbs then egg. Put them in the hot oil and watch them sizzle!




This is the most unhealthy part of the process, but if you use olive oil and/or canola oil at least it's a little bit ok, right? Heart healthy oils make everything ok :)

Put your fried eggplant onto paper towels to soak up some excess oil.



While those are drying, get out an appropriately sized dish and put enough tomato sauce in to coat the bottom. Oh yeah, start heating your oven at 350*.


Now you're going to do some layering. Tomato sauce, eggplant, parmesan and mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil.


I shredded my mozzarella which was a pain in the rear, so I would suggest just slicing it into small rounds or buying shredded mozzarella. The mozzarella in a ball just tastes so nice! It seems to taste fresher.

Ok anyway. You're going to do this layering business as many times as you can to use up your eggplant.

Your finished product will look like this:


That goes into the oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is melty and golden. While it's in the oven, enjoy one of these. A last taste of summer!



When the eggplant parm comes out, it looks like so:


On my plate, with some uninteresting boiled carrots.


Well let me tell you - this was SO GOOD! With my small eggplant it was enough for two servings. (I went back for seconds and left some of my carrots. Oops!)

Stay tuned for another delicious recipe coming soon from this amateur aspiring home cook!


1 comment:

  1. This looks amazing! We love eggplant. I thought the squishing thing was very interesting because SJ and I never squish them when we make something like this. It's a great idea though. Now we have an online recipe - can't wait to try it out!

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