By Kathryn Washburn Breighner
Wow! This is really good. I have an abundance of eggplant in the garden--the long, thin variety--along with tomatoes, basil, green peppers, and onions. So I picked all of them tonight and created this spectacular version of eggplant parmesan. Which is really eggplant parmesan and mozzarella.
This dish typically has eggplant slices dipped in egg and bread crumbs and then sauteed before baking with tomato sauce and the cheeses. I sliced the eggplant into 1/2" long pieces, brushed with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled in my cast iron grill pan (a Christmas present long ago from Perry). Once the eggplant had grill marks and began to soften, I turned them.
While I was doing this, I made a fresh tomato sauce by sauteing onions, green peppers and garlic in olive oil until they began to soften. Then I added 3 cups of fresh, chopped tomatoes and simmered about 25 minutes until it began to thicken. Then added a large handful of chopped basil, salt and pepper and simmered until thick.
In a 8x8" baking pan which I oiled, I added 1/2 c of the sauce, layered with the eggplant, topped with enough freshly grated parmesan to cover the eggplant, then topped with thin slices of fresh mozzarella. Then I did this same layer again--sauce, eggplant, cheeses--and again ending with the tomato sauce.
Into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes until it was bubbly and beginning to brown. Wow, wow, wow! Never again will I succumb to the traditional version. This is much, much tastier.
1 comments:
Great. Loved it. I did sweat the eggplant slices first with sea salt though, so mine was a little salty. Don't have a skillet, do I? But this is delicious and a much healthier alternative to traditional breadcrumbs and deep-frying.
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